At Least 5 Dead in Russian Plane Crash

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

Published: July 11, 2011

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MOSCOW — A Russian passenger plane caught fire and crash landed in a Siberian river on Monday, killing at least five people and prompting fresh concerns about the safety of Russia’s aging Soviet-era aircraft.

Mechanical failure in the left engine of the plane, an Antonov 24, appeared to be the most likely cause of the crash, which occurred in the Tomsk region of western Siberia at about 9:00 a.m. local time.

“The engine, according to preliminary information, began to break up in flight and then caught fire,” Sergei V. Izvolsky, a spokesman for the Russian Agency for Air Transportation, said by telephone. He said the pilots tried to make an emergency landing in the Ob River.

Video of the crash, apparently recorded on a cell phone, shows the plane streaking toward the water, its left wing engulfed in flames.

Last month, a Tupolev jet crashed in northwestern Russia killing 44, the latest in a series of disasters involving those vintage planes. And coming on the heels of the sinking of a Volga River cruise ship Sunday with more than 200 on board, it raised broader questions about Russia’s transportation infrastructure and cavalier attitude toward safety rules and practices.

The country has been working to modernize its fleet of civilian aircraft, and many larger airlines now fly Western-made Boeings and Airbuses. But small companies still tend to use the old Soviet models.

On Monday, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, recommended grounding all Tupelev-134s and Antonov-24s currently in use in the Russian civilian fleet. Pending an investigation, he said, the crew involved in Monday’s crash should be commended for minimizing casualties “under very difficult flying conditions.”

The Antonov 24, a mid-size twin engine prop plane, was first built in the 1960s and is still widely used in the countries of the former Soviet Union and other poorer countries, despite its abysmal safety record. There have been 1,971 recorded fatalities in 134 accidents since the plane began commercial flights, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

Last August, an Antonov 24 crash landed and burst into flames in the Siberian town of Igarka, killing about a dozen people.

The plane that crashed on Monday was built in 1975 and had its last full overhaul in 2006, said Andrei Pautov, a representative of Angara, the airline that owned the plane. The engine that caught fire underwent major maintenance work in 2009, he said.

It was carrying 33 passengers and 4 crew and was flying to the northern Siberian city of Surgut. In addition to the dead, two other people remained unaccounted for, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
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