RAMENSKOYE, RUSSIA (CBS NewsPath/CNN/WBTW) – A Russian passenger plane believed to be carrying 71 people crashed on Sunday afternoon near Moscow, shortly after takeoff from one of the city’s airports.
Russian state news agency Tass reported that all 71 people were killed.
Maxim Sololov, Russia’s transportation minister, did not confirm the number of people on board he did say “judging by everything, no one has survived this crash.”
The An-148 regional jet disappeared from radar screens a few minutes after departing from Domodedovo Airport en route to the city of Orsk, some 1,000 miles southeast of Moscow.
The plane reportedly belonged to Saratov Airlines, a Russian commercial carrier.
Plane fragments were found in the Ramenskoye area about 25 miles from the airport.
Footage on state television showed them strewn across a snowy field with no buildings nearby.
It was unclear if there were any casualties among people on the ground at the crash site.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said all possible crash causes were being looked into.
Shabby equipment and poor supervision had plagued Russian civil aviation for years after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but its safety record has improved markedly in recent years.
The last large-scale crash in Russia occurred on 25 December 2016, when a Tu-154 operated by the Russian Defence Ministry on its way to Syria crashed into the Black Sea minutes after takeoff from the southern Russian city of Sochi.
All 92 people on board were killed.
This is a developing story. Count on News13 to bring you updates as they become available.
