At least 41 people were killed and several others were injured after a Russian plane burst into flames while attempting an emergency landing at the Moscow airport. Videos of the incident from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport show panicked passengers using emergency exit slides to escape from the burning aircraft. The tail end of the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 can be seen completely engulfed by fire, discharging thick, black smoke to the atmosphere.
Aeroflot, Russia's national carrier, revealed that the plane was forced to return to the Sheremetyevo airport due to technical reasons, but it failed to survive the emergency landing. The aircraft departed Sheremetyevo airport at 6.02 pm local time to the city of Murmansk, and soon after the takeoff, the crew issued a distress signal. The plane's engine caught fire on the runway after the hard landing, and soon emergency crew rushed to the spot.
Aeroflot revealed that the emergency crew did everything to save the passengers, and many of them were evacuated within 55 seconds from the plane.
Russian media has reported that two children and a flight attended are among the ones who were dead. As per reports, the plane was carrying 78 passengers and five crew members during the time of the mishap, and the latest tally reveals that 37 people have survived the accident.
Initially, it has been reported that the death toll of the incident is 19. However, it rose sharply later, as Russian emergency workers retrieved bodies of the dead people from the burning wreckage.
Veronika Skvortsova, head of Russia's ministry of health, revealed that six people are now admitted to the hospital, and out of them, three are critically injured.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev issued condolences to the family members of the deceased people. Murmansk's Acting Governor Andrey Chibis apparently revealed that the families of the people who killed in the fire will each receive one million rubles, while the injured ones will receive 5,00,000 rubles.
