Moscow, Mar 19 (Agencies) : A plane carrying 62 people from Dubai crashed early on Saturday while landing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in strong winds, killing all aboard.
A list published by the emergencies ministry showed the 737-800 was carrying 55 passengers and seven crew members.
The Dubai Media Office says those killed in the crash of the FlyDubai airliner in Russia include 44 Russians, eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one person from Uzbekistan.
Flydubai with 62 passengers on board crashes in Russia
Moscow, Mar 19 (AFP) : All sixty-two people on board a flydubai Boeing 737 were killed when the plane crashed and burst into flames as it was landing in Rostov-on-Don, in Southern Russia, on Saturday morning, officials said.
The plane was making its second attempt to land in bad weather when it missed the runway, erupting in a huge fireball as it crashed and leaving debris scattered across a wide area.
"flydubai regrets to confirm that flight FZ981 crashed on landing and that fatalities have been confirmed as a result of this tragic accident," the airline said on its Facebook page.
Russian investigators confirmed that all 62 people on board were killed, raising the initial toll by one.
"According to the initial information, there were 55 passengers and seven crew members on board. They are all dead," investigators said.
The passengers were all Russian nationals, including four children, local news channel LifeNews reported, describing the crew as unspecified "foreigners".
Footage shown on local media showed a huge fireball engulfing a wide area after the plane went down. The authorities took more than an hour to get the blaze under control, the emergencies ministry said.
More than 500 rescuers and 60 vehicles were dispatched to the crash site, the ministry added.
"The plane skimmed the ground and broke into several pieces," the investigators said, and LifeNews reported that fragments of the Boeing 737 were scattered up to 1.5 kilometres from the crash site.
A strong wind warning was in place and it was raining hard at the time of the crash, and according to LifeNews, the plane had been circling the area trying to land for two hours because of the poor weather.
Other flights had been diverted to Krasnodar airport, 300 kilometres south of Rostov-on-Don.
"The weather conditions were terrible, the plane was shaking terribly," a passenger on one of the diverted flights told LifeNews.
A criminal investigation into the accident has been launched to determine whether any safety regulations were violated and if negligence played any part in the crash.
"A possible pilot error" was among the possible causes of the crash being examined, Jeanna Terekhova, an advisor to the Russian transport ministry, told news channel Russia 24.
The accident happened at 0620 IST according to the statement. The plane had left Dubai at 2350 IST, flydubai confirmed.
- Preliminary reports : bad weather, crew error suspected to be cause of crash
- Plane had missed first approach, crashed on second landing attempt
- Plane was 5-year-old
- Four children among the passengers feared killed in crash
- Boeing and Flydubai lauch investigation into crash of FZ 981
- 59 Russian nationals and 3 foreign passengers listed on board
- FZ 981 Flydubai plane was travelling en-route from Dubai airport, terminal 2
- 18 men, 33 women and 4 children passengers and 7 international crew members on board FZ 981
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