Pulkovo Tu-154 crashed

[Peter Smith 1]

BBC Report

 

Russian plane crashes in Ukraine

 

A Russian passenger plane carrying 170 people has crashed in eastern Ukraine.

 

Thirty bodies have been found at the crash site, about 45km (30 miles) north of Donetsk, a Russian official said.

 

The Tupolev-154 was flying from southern Russia to St Petersburg when it disappeared from radar screens following a distress signal.

 

The airliner was in flames on the ground, Ukraine's emergencies ministry said. Rescue workers were heading to the scene.

 

The crew sent a distress signal at 1537 Moscow time (1137 GMT), and the plane disappeared from radar screens at 1539 (1139 GMT), Irina Andrianova of Russia's Emergencies Ministry told Itar-Tass news agency.

 

The plane belongs to Pulkovo airlines, she said.

 

Ukrainian ministry spokesman Igor Krol said rescue teams had located the wreckage of the plane, Interfax news agency reported.

 

The plane had 160 passengers and 10 crew on board, and was travelling from the Black Sea resort of Anapa, emergency officials said.

 

Russian media reports said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the crash.

 

The crash comes less than two months after at least 124 people died when a Russian Airbus A-310 skidded off a runway and burst into flames in the city of Irkutsk in Siberia.

 

My sincere condolences to the families, and may all the victims rest in peace.

[Y. J. Foo 0]

A bad news indeed! RIP to all those perished....

 

Any clues about the cause?

[Naim 6]

Any clues about the cause?

From the Regnum website. Basically too early to say.

 

Expert: Bad weather conditions probably caused Tu154 crash

 

A REGNUM correspondent has learned some details of the Tu154 crash belonging to Pulkovo Airlines that was flying from Anapa to St. Petersburg (Russia). The aircraft fell down 45 km from Donetsk (Ukraine), failing to reach the main airport of the city. As REGNUM reported earlier, at 03:37 Moscow time it transmitted a SOS signal, two minutes later the plane disappeared from the radar screens. 160 passengers and 10 crew members were aboard.

 

As First Deputy Head of Donetsk International Airport Leonid Manukovsky told the REGNUM correspondent, right after the SOS signal a MI2 helicopter departed for the scene. The fact of the accident was confirmed. A brigade of emergency departments of Donetsk, Konstantinovla and Dzerzhinsk left for the crash site. Their task is to examine the site of the crash, search for flight communication and data recorders and determine the number of victims. The crash could possibly be caused by a wide thunderhead that was moving above the area. Rescue teams have been working on the scene. There have been no reports from the site.

[Naim 6]

See latest here: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060822/53000931.html

 

...

Emergency services moved immediately to quell fears that terrorists could have targeted the Tu-154, the mainstay of the Russian air fleet, by saying that stormy weather was likely to have caused the tragedy.

 

"A terrorist attack is ruled out," Irina Andriyanova said. "Ukrainian sources said the plane was caught in a thunderstorm."

 

Russian television's Channel One said citing Ukrainian sources that the plane had caught fire at an altitude of about 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) and the crew had decided to make an emergency landing after sending an SOS signal.

 

A spokesperson for the emergencies services told Russian television channel RTR that the plane gave a SOS signal at 15:37 Moscow time [11.37 GMT] and vanished from the screens two minutes later. The airline said the crew had sent four mayday signals before contact was lost, three at 38,600 feet (11,700 meters) and one two minutes later at 10,000 ft (3,000 meters)

 

The plane was expected to land in St. Petersburg, where doctors and psychologists are now attending to distraught relatives of the passengers, at 17:45 local time (13:45 GMT).

...

[Pieter C. 5]

May all who perished RIP (according the Dutch news, also 1-2 Dutch nationals involved)

 

TV showed tail of RA-85185

[William Tee 0]

RIP

[Min Chun 0]

May all the victims rest in peace..

deepest condolences to their families..

[Pieter C. 5]

Crew Blamed In Russian Crash Report

 

February 18, 2007

Pilot error caused a Russian airliner carrying 170 passengers and crew to crash last year killing everyone on board, an official report published on Saturday said.

 

The Russian-made Tu-154 was flying passengers home from the Black Sea when it crashed into a wooded gully in eastern Ukraine. The disaster prompted Russia to launch a government inquiry into aviation safety.

 

The report issued by Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said the crew had pushed the aircraft beyond its limits as they attempted to fly around a thunder storm.

 

"The reason for the disaster... was the steering of the aircraft under manual control into an angle of attack that was beyond critical, a stall and the subsequent transition into a flat spin and a collision with the ground," it said.

 

"A failure to monitor flight speed and non-compliance with instructions... on preventing the aircraft stalling... made it impossible to stop the situation becoming catastrophic," said the report.

 

The aircraft was operated by Russian carrier Pulkovo Airlines. On August 22, the day of the crash, it was cutting across Ukrainian territory en route from Russia's Black Sea resort of Anapa to the second city of St Petersburg.

 

Officials initially said the aircraft was brought down by the storm. But the accident report said the weather should not have been a major problem. It also said there were shortcomings in the pilots' training.

 

Safety standards in Russian civil aviation plummeted after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 

They have since shown substantial improvement, although last year saw three major crashes either in Russia or involving Russian airlines which killed a total of 405 people.

 

(Reuters)

 

[Andrew Ong 1]

RIP to the passengers that never made it out alive