The airliner took off from Moscow at 22:30 on Monday, made a hard landing on the highway about a kilometer from Petrozaavodska writes "Gazeta.ru".
ooking at Google Earth and a Reuters photo of the crash scene (the one with the Airport direction road sign) it would seem possible that they'd lined up with the airport access road which runs roughly parallel to runway 02 but about 400 metres right of it. The airport road is a residential area (houses on the right side of the road) so it will probably have good street lighting. Might explain why they had descended below minimums thinking they had the runway in sight.
Considering the deteriorating weather, a "lit" road may have been erroneously mistaken for runway - could it not be a classical
Orientation error accident: due to Type I
Spatial Disorientation?
PS: Considering the map, posted by Kulverstukas, I have taken the liberty to restate my point about SD? Thank you for the map, Kulverstukas.