50 people on board all died in Rusian plan crash yesterday.The
Boeing 737 had taken off from Moscow and was trying to land but exploded on
impact at about 19:20 local time (15:20 GMT), officials said.
The
Emergencies Ministry said there were 44 passengers and six crew members on the
Tatarstan Airlines flight.
Investigators
are now looking at whether a technical failure or crew error may have caused
the crash. Among the dead was Irek Minnikhanov, a son of the president of the
Russian Republic of Tatarstan, according to the official passenger list.
Aleksander Antonov, who headed Tatarstan's branch of the Federal Security Service, was also among the passengers. The victims also included two children.
Reports said the pilot had already tried to land several times before crashing. The crew had said they were not ready to land because of technical problems, Russian news agencies report.
A journalist who said she had flown on the same aircraft from Kazan to Moscow earlier on Sunday told Russia's Channel TV that there was a strong vibration during the landing in the Russian capital.
"When we were landing it was not clear whether there was a strong wind, although in Moscow the weather was fine, or some kind of technical trouble or problem with the flight," said Lenara Kashafutdinova.
"We were blown in different directions, the plane was tossed around. The man sitting next to me was white as a sheet."
The airport in Kazan - the capital of Tatarstan - has been closed since the accident and is expected to re-open on today.
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