PPRuNe Forums - YET ANOTHER RUSSIAN PLANE CRASH!

Cargo Jet Crashes in Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian cargo plane crashed Saturday after taking off from a military airport near Moscow, killing all 10 crew members aboard, defense officials said.

The four-engine Il-76 cargo jet was taking off from the Chkalovsky military airport, about 20 miles northeast of Moscow, when it went down, the Defense Ministry duty officer said.

All 10 crew members died, the duty officer said. There were no passengers aboard the aircraft, he said.

The plane belonged to the Rus commercial aviation company and was being flown by a civilian crew, the ITAR-Tass news agency said, citing a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. It was carrying a cargo of building materials and cosmetics, the report said.

Radio contact with the aircraft was lost two minutes after it took off, ITAR-Tass said. It had reached an altitude of about 150 feet when it crashed about 550 yards from the end of the runway.

The plane had full fuel tanks and a fire broke out immediately after the crash, the report said. Airport firefighters extinguished the blaze after about 40 minutes, ITAR-Tass said.

Nearly 300 emergency personnel and firefighters were at the scene of the crash and they had already recovered the aircraft's flight recorders, the Interfax news agency said.

The aircraft had been chartered to fly from Moscow to Norilsk, a major nickel producing region in northern Siberia, 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the Defense Ministry duty officer said.

Although it was flying from a military airfield, it was not carrying military cargo, he said. Interfax said the plane was carrying about 40 tons of civilian cargo, and speculated that it may have been overloaded when it crashed.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was informed about the accident and a commission to investigate the accident has been set up, ITAR-Tass said.

I seem to be the bearer of bad news everytime at the moment!
:(