Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sits in the co-pilot's seat at a cockpit of an Emergencies Ministry's Beriev Be-200 amphibian multirole jet flying drop water over a a forest fires in Ryazan region, some 180 km (111 miles) southeast of Moscow, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010. AP Photo Russian aviation investigators have launched a probe into the emergency landing of a passenger jet that rolled into a forest without hurting anyone.

The Tupolev Tu-154 airliner was carrying 72 passengers and 9 crew when it suffered an electrical system failure Tuesday while flying from Polyarnyi in northern Siberia to Moscow.

The pilot managed to land the three-engine jet at an abandoned military air base near the village of Izhma in the northern Komi region.

But the air base's runway was too short for the big Tupolev and the plane rolled off into a nearby forest.

Russian television stations showed footage of the airliner sitting mostly intact between young trees.

The government's top investigative body said Wednesday it would investigate the cause of the accident.