Russian Airliner With 171 Aboard Crashes In Eastern Ukraine
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer Kiev, Ukraine (AHN) - A Russian airliner en route from Black Sea resort town of Anapa to the country's second city of St Petersburg with about 171 people on board crashed on Tuesday afternoon in eastern Ukraine, official news agency Interfax reported, quoting the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry. Russia's state-run RIA Novosti reported wreckage of Flight 62 has been found in Ukraine. CNN's Matthew Change, quoting ministry officials said 160 passengers and 10 crew members were aboard the Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft belonging to Pulkovo Airlines. "Early reports say the plane crashed 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Donetsk," Irina Andrianovaa, a senior spokeswoman for the ministry, told Interfax. "At 3:37 p.m. Moscow time the plane sent an SOS signal and at 3:39 it disappeared from radar screens," Andrianova said. The Tu-154, dating from Soviet times, is the workhorse of most airlines operating in ex-Soviet states. Although a popular aircraft, it has been involved in at least 30 air disasters since it went into service in 1968. Experts blame poor maintenance, safety violations and cost-cutting for a high accident rate among the airliners.
Article © All Headline News - All Rights Reserved
|
