At Least 122 Dead In Siberian Crash

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An S7Airlines A310 with 204 people on board apparently went out of control after landing at Irkutsk Airport (Russia) early Sunday and at least 122 people are dead. Passenger Margarita Svetlova, 15, told the New York Times the airplane seemed to land normally and, after initially starting to slow down, began speeding up. There were unconfirmed reports quoting anonymous crash investigators as saying the plane’s brakes failed. What happened next, seems pretty clear, however. The plane veered off the runway and hit a row of storage buildings, caught fire and, it appears many people who survived the crash were killed by the fire. “It was awful,” Svetlova told the Times. “A fire started and people started to scream. I saw people burning.” [more] So far, 58 survivors have been counted and that means 12 people are missing. If they, too, perished, the death count will be 134. Siberia Airlines is Russia’s second largest carrier and flies more than 100 flights a day to hubs in Novosibirsk, Moscow and Irkustk. The plane was almost 20 years old but airline officials said it had been cleared for flight.

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