Plane crash in Kazan: 50 dead

The passenger Boeing Airlines Tatarstan, which performed a flight from Moscow, crashed at the Kazan airport. On board were 50 people - 44 passengers and 6 crew members. All of them died, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency.

The Ministry of Emergencies in Tatarstan published a list of the dead . The authorities confirmed the death of Irek Minnikhanov, the son of the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, as well as the head of the Republican FSB Alexander Antonov.

The crash occurred at 19:25 Moscow time, the Ministry of Emergencies reports. When entering the second circle, a collision with the ground occurred. The plane fell into the runway and caught fire. “Most likely, the pilots made a mistake when entering the second circle, but the automation could also bring, that is, we are also considering the versions of the technical malfunction,” the agency’s source in the emergency services of Tatarstan said.

Investigators and forensics of the Volga Investigation Department by transport left for the disaster, the postal committee said. The issue of initiating a criminal case is being decided. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to form a special commission to investigate the reasons for the fall of the aircraft.

APROPORT "Kazan" is closed. “Now it’s difficult to say how long the airport is closed. It is necessary to assess the status of the runway, how suitable for receiving and sending aircraft. In addition, search operations and the subsequent process of extracting the parts of the aircraft from the runway can take for a long time, up to several days,” the agency’s interlocutor said.

The investigation considers three versions of what happened - the piloting error, technical malfunction and adverse weather conditions, the official representative of the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Interfax. According to him, the fallen plane was extinguished, investigators began to inspect the scene.

According to Gazeta.ru, during the operation of the aircraft, seven airlines ruled. Initially, the car was on the balance of the French airline Euralair Horizons, then Air France. In 1995, the board was transferred to Africa, Uganda Airlines. Five years later, it was accepted by the small Brazilian company Rio Sul. For another five years they were owned by the Romanian Blue Air, and then only six months Bulgarian Bulgaria Air. Since December 2008, the board began to carry passengers of the Tatarstan airline. The passenger aircraft Boeing 737-500 is the smallest representative of the classic series of the Boeing 737 aircraft family. It has a shortened fuselage and an increased flight range compared to the basic model of the series-Boeing 737-300.