Boeing Aircraft Crashes In Rostov Region, Killing All Passengers and Crew
An aircraft carrying 62 people crashed Saturday morning, killing everybody on board. The plane, which came from Dubai, was trying to land in Russia in poor weather conditions.
Russian officials said the crash does not appear to be related to terror but they are looking at whether pilot error or bad weather were the ca-use.
A spokesman from the Russian Investigative Committee (similar to the U.S. FBI) said the FlyDubai plane hit the ground and just fell apart.
According to a CCTV video located near the crash site, a ball of flames rained down and a massive explosion could be seen through the trees.
The pilots of the Boeing 737-800 had initially tried landing at its destination Rostov-on-Don airport. It was coming down for a second try when the crash took place. Two hours before the plane crash, the airline was in a mid-air holding pattern. It occurred around 3:50 a.m. local time in southern Russia.
According to Russia’s Transportation Ministry spokeswoman Zhanna Terekhova, both of the plane’s black boxes were located. The National Transportation Safety Board from the U.S. is helping Russian officials to investigate the crash.
Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of the airliner, confirmed media reports that no one had survived the crash and everybody is in a deep state of shock. He said there are not many details known about the accident but the airline was working in close conjunction with the authorities to learn what happened. Ghaith said the airline was committed to care for the people affected by the tragedy and to give help to family and friends of those who had died on the plane.
44 passengers were Russian citizens, eight were Ukranian, two Indian and one Uzbek. 33 of the passengers were female, 18 were men and four were kids. The crew had five male and two female.
According to the Rostov branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, about 850 emergency crews headed to the scene. There were also dozens of psychologists that were asked to aid relatives during this difficult time.
At the time of the crash, it was 42 degrees and raining. Interfax news agency said winds were gusting to around 60 mph.
Head of Emergency Situations Ministry Igor Oder said the plane hit the ground when trying to land for the second time.
Ghaith said the pilot did not issue a distress call before the crash.
Vasily Golubev, the local governor, said $15,000 were being given to the victim’s families. He also declared Sunday to be a day of mourning for the area.
This is the airline company’s first crash since it began flying in 2009. It did have a safety issue on Jan. 27 when one plane had been shot at while attempting to land at the Baghdad airport.
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