Russia has launched an investigation into the crash landing of a Boeing 737 at Kazan international airport, which killed all fifty people on board.
The plane belonged to the local Tatarstan Airlines, and was carrying 44 passengers including the son of Tatarstan’s president, a top local security official, and one Briton according to the Foreign Office.
Witnesses said that the pilots aborted a first landing attempt, with the plane crashing into the runway on its second attemp and catching fire. A loud explosion was heard as the plane smashed into the runway at around 19:20 local time (23:20 GMT) on Sunday, with a recently released footage (above) showing the dramatic nosedive and impact.
Investigators are examining the plane to determine the cause of the crash, but authorities have speculated that it was likely pilot error or a technical failure, with leftover fuel in the tanks causing the explosion.
More footage from a cameraphone shows the extent of the destruction caused:
1 Comment
This airport surveillance video provides information about what happened to the aircraft even above the range of the camera, because you can see 3 bright flashes of light reflected in the wet pavement before the crash. Only one of those flashes was captured directly before the impact. That other dim reflected flash was from the plane’s landing lights.