Eight injured after plane abruptly cancels takeoff at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport

Eight people have been injured during the emergency landing and evacuation of a Nordwind flight from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

A Boeing 737 jet with 173 passengers and six crewmembers on board was about to begin flight N4-477 from Moscow to Yerevan, Armenia, on the night before July 19 when the incident occurred. While the airplane was accelerating on the runway, a warning light for the plane’s smoke detectors turned on in the cockpit, and the flight’s pilots decided not to take off.

Passengers were evacuated using inflatable ramps. Two of them were hospitalized. Most of the injured passengers had bruises and abrasions, Moscow regional emergency responders reported. “One individual was hospitalized for a dislocated ankle and another for a hypertensive crisis,” they explained.

When first responders arrived on the scene, they did not find any signs of burning in the plane’s cabin. Representatives for Nordwind later wrote that the incident was triggered by an unusual smell onboard the plane.

A source within Russia’s aviation regulation sector told TASSthat the Boeing 737 had passed all its pre-flight procedures and was in sound condition before the flight. Interfax, meanwhile, wrote that the aborted takeoff may have been caused by a violation of pre-flight technical procedures. The wire agency’s source said that “a fluid that is typically used to clean the engine may have leaked into the air ventilation system,” thus creating smoke. Russia’s federal aviation regulator has already formed a special commission to investigate the incident at Sheremetyevo. Its transportation agency has also announced an investigation into Nordwind’s operations.

Meanwhile, the Russia’s Investigative Committee announced that preliminary evidence points to a leak of hydraulic fluid fumes into the plane’s air conditioning system as the likely cause of the emergency.

At 5:34 AM, the passengers evacuated from the Boeing 737 were sent to Yerevan on a reserve flight. Twenty-eight of them declined to board the second aircraft.

Report by Alexander Filimonov

Translation by Hilah Kohen