02-19-2018, 03:45 PM
OS accidents - Bad start to 2018 
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Quote:Hunt for clues to Russian crash
12:00am
Investigators were to examine last night numerous possible causes of one of Russia’s worst ever aviation accidents.
Investigators scoured the scene last night after a passenger jet crashed near Moscow minutes after take-off, killing all 71 people on board, in one of Russia’s worst-ever plane crashes.
The site of the crash was enveloped in heavy snow that was waist-high in places, making it difficult to access, with emergency workers forced to reach the wreckage by foot or on snowmobiles.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it would consider explanations including human error, technical failure and weather conditions, as the country has experienced record snowfall in recent weeks. But it did not mention the possibility of terrorism. Some reports suggested there were questions about whether the plane had been properly de-iced. Moderate snow was falling in much of Moscow at the time of the crash.
The Antonov An-148 went down in the Ramensky district 70km southeast of Moscow at 2.48pm (11.48pm AEDT) on Sunday after taking off from Domodedovo airport in the capital.
“Sixty-five passengers and six crew members were on board, and all of them died,” Russia’s Office of Transport Investigations said.
A Swiss citizen and a citizen of Azerbaijan were among the fatalities. Three children also died, including a five-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, Evgeny Livanov.
The flight was operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines and was headed for Orsk, a city in the Ural mountains. The governor of Orenburg, where the plane was heading, said “more than 60 people” on board were from the region.
The Investigative Committee said that the aircraft caught fire on the ground after crashing.
“At the moment of falling, the aeroplane was intact, without a fire. An explosion took place after the plane crashed,” it said.
About one hundred investigators and criminologists were working at the scene. At least one of the plane’s two black boxes had been found.
With wreckage of the plane spread over more than 30ha around the crash site, it will take a week to inspect the whole area.
More than 900 people using equipment including drones were involved in the search, which has been reclassified as looking for bodies rather than survivors.
“We plan to carry out the main stage of the search operation in seven days because the plane debris is scattered over a very large area,” Emergency Services Minister Vladimir Puchkov said at the scene, adding that “heavy snow” hampered searchers.
“We walked about 600 to 700 metres across a field, with snow in places waist-deep,” said Alexei Besedin, one of the first rescuers to reach the scene.
Domodedovo airport has been the focus of security concerns in the past. Security lapses came under sharp criticism in 2004, after Chechen suicide bombers destroyed two airliners that took off from the airport on the same evening, killing a total of 90 people. A 2011 bombing in the arrivals area killed 37 people.
Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said “genetic expertise” would be needed to help identify the victims, adding that it could “take two or three months”.
“I felt a shockwave,” said Maria, a resident of a village near the crash site. “The windows shook.”
The transport investigations office said the plane disappeared from radar screens about four minutes after take-off. The Russian-made plane was reportedly seven years old and bought by Saratov Airlines from another Russian airline a year ago.
Saratov was founded in the 1930s and flies to 35 Russian cities. Its hub is Saratov Central Airport in southern Russia.
President Vladimir Putin offered “his profound condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash”. Mr Putin cancelled plans to travel to Sochi to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Instead, the meeting will take place in Moscow.
Orsk Mayor Andrei Odintsov said that six psychologists and four ambulance crews were working with the families of the victims at the city’s airport.
Shabby equipment and poor supervision plagued Russian civil aviation for years after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, with airlines often operating ageing aircraft in dangerous flying conditions, but its safety record has improved in recent years.
A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia’s far east, killing six people on board.
In December 2016, a military plane carrying Russia’s famed Red Army Choir crashed after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board. The choir had been due to give a concert to Russian troops operating in Syria. Pilot error was blamed for that crash.
In March 2016, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubai jet crashed in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.
AFP, AP
Iran plane crash leaves 66 dead
8:19pm
A plane crash in southern Iran has killed all 66 people on board the Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a spokesman has told state TV.
A plane crash in southern Iran has killed all 66 people on board, Iran’s Aseman Airlines spokesman has told state TV.
An Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780km south of the Iranian capital, Tehran..
Aseman spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on the flight were killed — 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members. Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn’t reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.
Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 440m high. Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.
The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating.
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran’s commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.
AP
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