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Monday 20 June 2011

44 die in Russian plane crash

Forty-four people were killed when a passenger jet crashed late on Monday in northwestern Russia, news agencies said.
RIA Novosti and ITAR-Tass, citing Emergencies Ministry officials, reported that the RusAir plane crash-landed on a highway en route from Moscow to the city of Petrozavodsk. They reported eight people who survived the crash were in critical condition in a hospital in Petrozavodsk.
There was no immediate explanation for the crash.
Russian news agencies said the plane crashed on its final approach to the airport in Petrozavodsk, landing a few hundred metres short of the runway.
Petrozavodsk is in the province of Karelia, 640 kilometres north-west of Moscow.
The plane was a Russian-made Tu-134 jet, the Emergencies Ministry said, carrying 52 people, nine of whom were crew.
The ministry confirmed on its website that there had been an incident and posted a list of 43 passengers. The Karelia branch of the Emergencies Ministry said radio contact with the pilot was lost at 23:40 local time.

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