2 killed in Russian plane emergency landing
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A Tu-154 plane skidded off the runway, crashed into a small hill and broke into three parts during an emergency landing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Saturday, killing two and injuring 87.
Emergency landing
The Dagestan Airline plane, en route from Moscow to Dagestan's capital Makhachkala, was forced to make the emergency landing after it took off from Moscow's Vnukovo airport and found that one of the three engines had failed, the Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia said.
While the pilots started the emergency landing, the second engine died. And finally, when the jet was about to touch the runway, the third engine broke down.
A source with the transportation department said that initial investigation suggests the plane might have suffered a power blackout.
"The engines failed consecutively on the aircraft and afterward there were glitches in the generator, as a result of which the plane might have been left without power," the source was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Dagestan Airlines, owner of the airliner, has ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
Serious damage
Initial investigations suggest that the airliner had its front carriage broken during the landing and the hull broke into pieces as a result, Russia's civil aviation authority said.
Due to the unfavorable weather conditions and low clouds over the Domodedovo airport, the pilots were unable to see the runway lights, Rosaviatsia's head Alexander Neradko told reporters.
When the plane came out of the clouds, there was almost no time left for landing, he said.
Missing the runway, the plane landed at the safety zone along the runway and then crossed the runway, skidding to the left side, Neradko said.
"At a distance of about 100 meters to a concrete fence, the plane encountered a natural obstacle -- a small hill. In a collision with it, the aircraft broke up into three parts," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Itar-Tass news agency.
A survivor of the accident, who was still at the Domodedovo airport two hours after the accident, showed to a Xinhua reporter his trousers, which had been frayed due to the severe bumping during the landing.
"It was very horrible," the survivor said.
Pictures taken by some passengers with their mobile phones showed the front of the hull was torn off, and the wings and the tail section were also damaged.
Casualties
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed that two people were killed in the accident. The number of injured has climbed to 87 by 11 p.m. Moscow time (2000 GMT).
The Russian Health Ministry said that some of the injured are in critical condition.
Earlier reports said there were 155 people on board, but according to the latest number released by the Emergency Situations Ministry, the plane was carrying 160 passengers and nine crew members.
Dagestan President Magomedsalam Magomedove said his brother was also on the plane, who was injured and sent to hospital.
The Dagestani authorities have pledged to pay 250,000 rubles ( about 8,300 U.S. dollars) to the victims, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been informed about the situation, Interfax reported.
Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has ordered a priority investigation into the air crash, a spokesman for the prosecutor general's office said.
The troubled plane was of the same model that crashed in Smolensk in April killing Polish President Lech Kaczynski and over 90 officials.
Aircraft experts in Russia said most of the Tu-154 planes are in poor conditions and need replacement urgently.
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