MOSCOW – The pilot of a Russian passenger plane that erupted in a ball offire on the runway of Moscow’s busiest airport, killing 41 people, saidlightning led to the emergency landing.
Investigators were on Monday working to understand the causes of the blazeafter the Sukhoi Superjet-100 had to return to Sheremetyevo airport shortlyafter take-off Sunday evening.
But pilot Denis Yevdokimov told Russian media the craft lost communicationand needed to switch to emergency control mode “because of lightning” onthe Aeroflot flight to the Arctic city of Murmansk.
He did not specify if the plane was struck directly.
“We managed to restore communication through the emergency frequency on ourradio connection. But the link was only for a short time and kept cuttingout… it was possible to say only a few words,” he told the KomsomolskayaPravda newspaper.
Videos on social media showed the plane crash-landing and then speedingalong the runway with flames pouring from its fuselage.
Passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front andrunning from the blazing plane as columns of black smoke billowed into thesky.
Another video shot inside the cabin showed roaring flames outside thewindow and passengers crying out in panic.
Evdokimov said he believed the plane burst into flames on landing, mostlikely because of full fuel tanks.At least two children were among the 41 dead and nine more people were in ahospital, three of them seriously injured, authorities said.
The aircraft’s black boxes have been found and handed over toinvestigators, a source in the Russian emergency services told newsagencies.
– ‘Flash of white light’ –
Several of the 78 people on board said they believed lightning was thecause of the tragedy, which came at the end of several days of publicholidays following Workers’ Day on May 1.
“I saw a flash of white light,” Dmitry Khlebushkin told the state RIA newsagency.
Pyotr Egorov, also on board, told media: “We had just taken off when theplane was hit by lightning… the landing was very hard, we almost passed outfrom fear.
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“The plane bounced on the tarmac like a grasshopper and burst into flameson the ground.”
The jet — carrying 73 passengers and five crew members — left Sheremetyevoat 6:02pm (1502 GMT), and the crew issued a distress signal shortlyafterwards, officials said.
Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot was once notorious for its poor safetyrecord but in recent years its image has improved and it has not had afatal accident in more than a decade.
The Russian Sukhoi Superjet-100, however, has been dogged with problemssince its launch in 2011.
In 2012, a Superjet performing at an Indonesian air show slammed into avolcano, killing all 45 people on board. Indonesia blamed the crash onpilot error.
Technical problems with the plane have been reported in recent years andRussia has struggled to convince foreign carriers to purchase it.
The government offered subsidies to encourage Russian airlines to buy theSuperjet and Aeroflot has become its main operator.
In September 2018, it announced a record order of 100 Superjet-100s.
The Murmansk region — where many of those killed or injured are believed tobe from — went into a three-day period of mourning from Monday.
Other Aeroflot flights are expected to be affected in the coming days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the victims’loved ones and said the investigation “should be as thorough as possible”,according to the Kremlin.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered a special committee to investigatethe disaster.
