Plane Crashes In Siberia, Killing 122
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MOSCOW — A landing plane careened off a rain-slicked Siberian runway early yesterday, plowed into garages, and burst into flames, killing at least 122 people in Russia’s second major commercial airline crash in two months.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the braking system on the Airbus A-310 operated by Russian airline S7 had failed, Russian news agencies reported, citing unnamed sources.
The plane was carrying at least 201 people on the 2,600-mile flight east to the Siberian city of Irkutsk from Moscow. Fifty-eight people were injured. Many of the children on board were headed to Lake Baikal on vacation, according to news reports.
A flight attendant, Viktoria Zilberstein, opened the emergency hatch in the rear of the burning plane, according to the Emergency Ministry. Ten passengers escaped, and others — including a pilot — were saved by rescuers including firefighters, ITAR-Tass reported.
Relatives streamed to a crisis center near Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, where the flight originated. Some stumbled out in silent shock. One woman exclaimed into her cell phone, ecstatic that a family friend had survived.
After veering off the runway at about 7:50 a.m., the plane tore through a 6-foot-high concrete barrier, crashed into a compound of garages, and stopped a short distance from some small houses.
“I saw smoke coming from the aircraft. People were already walking out who were charred, injured, burnt,” a witness told NTV television.