A
passenger jet circled a southern Russian airport in high winds and poor
visibility, then crashed on a second landing attempt early Saturday,
killing all 62 people aboard. The flydubai Boeing 737 jet crashed at the Rostov-on-Don airport after traveling from Dubai. All those on board died, authorities said.
Officials believe bad weather, which kept the plane from reattempting landing for more than two hours, likely caused the crash.
Psychologists on scene
The jet was carrying 55 passengers and seven crew members when it crashed, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said. It was scheduled to land at 1:20 a.m. (6:20 p.m. ET), but went down at 3:50 a.m. (8:50 p.m. ET), he said.
The airport is closed, and medics and psychologists are on standby to assist family members, he said.
About
700 people are involved in the rescue operation, the Ministry of
Emergency Situations said. The crash site is 800 feet (243 meters) from
the airport runway, it said. The
ministry said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a cause of the
crash at this stage and weather conditions were most-likely responsible.
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| Debis on the runway after the crash |
Emergency staff found one of the plane's flight recorders amongst the wreckage, state news reported.
The
plane's pilot circled the airport, waiting for the weather to clear
before making a second attempt to land, but the aircraft's tail had
clipped the runway, it said.
State media reported winds of 97 kph (60 mph) at the time of the crash. The Russian Investigative Committee has launched an investigation, and is considering three potential causes, state-run Ria Novosti news agency reported. "Different
versions of the incident are being investigated, including crew error,
technical failure, bad weather and other factors," it quoted committee
chief Vladimir Markin as saying. Workers at the crash scene have both of the plane's flight data recorders and one of two voice recorders, Ria Novosti reported.
Children among victims
Flydubai said no one survived. "Fly dubai very much regrets to
confirm that the accident involving flight number FZ981 at
Rostov-on-Don earlier today has resulted in 55 passenger fatalities
including 33 women, 18 men and four children.
"The
nationalities of the deceased passengers include 44 Russians, eight
Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbekistani," the airline said. Earlier, Russia's Emergencies Ministry had said 50 of the passengers and one of the crew members were Russian citizens. It has published a list of those on board. Emergency workers are at the scene of the crash. Flydubai has said that its primary concern was for the relatives of the victims.
"We don't yet know all the details of the accident but we are working
closely with the authorities to establish the cause. We are making every
effort to care for those affected and will provide assistance to the
loved ones of those on board," flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said.
Pilots 'quite experienced'
Al-Gaith
later told a media conference the plane's pilots were "quite
experienced," saying the Cypriot captain had flown 5,965 hours while the
Spanish co-captain had flown 5,769 hours.
"As
far as I can tell, there was no distress call" he said, adding that it
was too soon to confirm all the details. Regarding the aircraft's safety
record, al-Gaith said the aircraft had passed a "C-Check" on January
21. According to the Federal Aviation Administration,
the aircraft maintenance inspections are graded from the least detailed
and most frequent "A-Check," to the most comprehensive "D-check," which
might occur only three to six times in a plane's service life. Answering
a question regarding the difficulty of landing, al-Gaith said "as far
as we know, the airport was open and we were good to operate."
The
United Arab Emirates CIvil Aviation Authority said it was sending four
investigators to Moscow to participate with the Russians in the
investigation into the crash. They would be joined by teams from Boeing
and the U.S.-based National Transportation and Safety Board, an official
told the conference. He said the
authority had not received any official confirmation from Russia that
the plane's flight data recorders -- known as black boxes -- had been
found.
Assistance to victims
Russian
President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the
families and friends of the victims, state news agency Tass reported. Families
of passengers killed will receive one million rubles (about $15,000)
from the government, Russian state media reported. It said Sunday has
been declared a day of mourning in the Rostov region.
 |
| Grieving family members of the deceased |
A
Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employee (L) tries to comfort a
relative of the plane crash victims at the Rostov-on-Don airport.Dubai's government media office posted a statement of sympathy on Twitter.
"UAE
offers its deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to
the Russian government and people for the tragic accident of flydubai,"
it said. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, vice President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai
also offered his condolences to the families.
"I
offer my condolences to the families of the passengers who lost their
lives on board flight FZ981. This terrible tragedy grieves us all," the
tweet read. "We mourn those lost, may
their souls rest in peace. Our thoughts are with their loved ones at
this time of sorrow and grief," a second post added.
Boeing issued a statement
saying its thoughts were also with the crash victims, their families and
friends. "Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance upon the
request of government agencies conducting the investigation," it said.
Pilot disorientation?
CNN
aviation expert Mary Schiavo said radar suggested the plane had flown
three large, looping circles around the airport before it crashed. "The
poor visibility is probably the biggest clue," Schiavo said. "But this
runway was lighted, it had good lighting at one end and passable
lighting at the other and it did have an instrument landing system."
"With
the clue of bad weather and making at least three different circles
trying to reorient to this runway, it does look like pilot
disorientation."
Meantime, aviation
safety analyst David Soucie agreed with the ministry's preliminary
assessment that weather was likely to blame. "It's not likely it was a mechanical failure," Soucie said. "It's most-likely a weather-related incident."
Rostov-on-Don airport would be closed until March 20, Russia 24 quoted officials as saying.
Until then, flights were redirected to the city of Krasnodar -- 141 miles south of the airport, it said.
Source: CNN
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