MOSCOW (AP) – Flags flew at half-staff and entertainment programs were canceled across Russia on Monday to mark a day of mourning for the victims of a weekend plane crash in the Siberian city of Irkutsk that killed at least 122 people with nine others missing.
Fifty-eight people were injured when the airliner careened off a rain-slicked runway into adjacent garages on Sunday and burst into flame; in all, 72 of the 203 confirmed passengers survived, said Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. It was the second major commercial airline crash in two months in Russia.
Preliminary data gathered by the commission investigating the crash indicate that the braking system on the Airbus A-310 operated by Russian airline S7 had failed, Russian news agencies reported, citing unnamed sources.
Airline spokesman Konstantin Koshman said there were 193 passengers on the Moscow-Irkutsk flight – including 14 children aged 12 and under – and a crew of eight aboard. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Natalia Lukash said three people whose names were not on the passenger list were pulled unconscious from the wreckage; it was not clear if they had been on the ground or were flying as unregistered passengers.
Many of the children were headed to nearby Lake Baikal on vacation, according to Russian news reports, although Koshman said he had no details on that. Irkutsk is 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) east of Moscow.
The plane veered off the runway on landing and tore through a 2-meter-high (6-foot-high) concrete barrier. It then crashed into a compound of one-story garages, stopping a short distance from some small houses, about 7:50 a.m. (2250 GMT Saturday).
A witness said he heard a concussion and the ground trembled.
“I saw smoke coming from the aircraft. People were already walking out who were charred, injured, burnt,” Mikhail Yegeryov told NTV television.
Transport Minister Igor Levitin blamed the wet runway.
“The aircraft veered off the runway. There was rain, the landing strip was wet. So we’ll have to check the clutch and the technical condition of the aircraft,” he told Russian state television.
Pilots regard the Irkutsk airport as difficult because its runway slopes and because its concrete is especially slippery when wet, Vladimir Biryukov, an expert at the Gromov Aviation Institute, said on NTV.
Koshman, the airline spokesman, said the plane, which was constructed in 1987, had been regularly maintained and met all certifications.
Another S-7 Airbus A-310 made an emergency landing early Monday in the Crimean port of Simferopol, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. The pilots of the plane, which was chartered to fly from the Turkish resort of Antalya to Moscow, noticed the level of fuel in one of the engines dropping and so decided to land the plane early, RIA-Novosti said.
President Vladimir Putin conveyed his condolences to family and friends of the victims of the crash and declared Monday a national day of mourning.
One air stewardess, Viktoria Zilberstein, opened the emergency hatch in the rear of the aircraft and let a number of passengers out, said the Emergency Ministry’s regional branch.
Ten passengers managed to escape this way and other survivors, including a pilot, were rescued by firefighters and rescuers from the burning wreckage, ITAR-Tass reported.
The transport minister said the aircraft’s two recorders had been recovered and were being deciphered.
Levitin added that the pilot had radioed ground control to say the aircraft had landed safely and then communication cut off.
Anxious and frightened relatives of passengers came Sunday to Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, from where the plane took off. A crisis center was set up near the airport to provide them information and aid.
“We still have hope,” said 27-year-old Roman Gavrilov, whose father had gone to Irkutsk for a fishing trip with old army buddies, his first vacation in three years.
In May, another Airbus crashed in stormy weather off Russia’s Black Sea coast as it prepared to land, killing all 113 people on board. Airline officials blamed the crash of the Armenian passenger plane on driving rain and low visibility.
Sunday’s disaster was the fourth air crash in Irkutsk in the past 12 years.
