Early on Saturday, more than 160 passengers and crew on a Russian Boeing 737 skidded off the end of a runway during a rough landing in the Russian city of Sochi, plunging into a river and exploding into flames.
All passengers and crew managed to escape, about 18 people received medical treatment, the Russian Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that rescue crews swiftly evacuated everyone from the plane.
“At the moment, there are 18 injured, including three children. There are no fatalities,” the ministry said in a statement. All 160 people on board were evacuated. The blaze has been put out, local emergency services said.
Аэропорт Сочи. Горит лайнер, который выкатился за пределы ВПП и врезался в забор. Есть пострадавшие pic.twitter.com/D7tKFV0rFG
— НТВ (@ntvru) September 1, 2018
The inflatable chutes from the doors of the plane reportedly slow in opening, passengers said (Source/ Daily Mail/AP)
Some of those on board jumped from the wings of the plane to escape (Source/ Daily Mail/AP)
Dramatic images show the plane on fire after people had been evacuated from the runway in Sochi, Russia (Source/ Daily Mail/ east2west news)
Initial reports say one of the wings clipped the ground during landing in the bad weather (Source/ Daily Mail/ east2west news)
All passengers on-board the Boeing 737 plane escaped but one rescuer is said to have died from a heart attack (Source/ Daily Mail/ east2west news)
The Utair airline said Flight UT579 going from Moscow to Sochi had difficult landing due to poor weather. It took the aircraft two attempts to land, with strong wind and rain behind the first failed attempt.
BREAKING: Utair flight #UT579 from Moscow to Sochi overun runway. All 164 passengers and 6 Crew are safely evacuated, 18 people injured and 3 of them was children. #UT579
Pic: from social media. pic.twitter.com/H866CO3ZBD— Aviationdk (@aviationdk) September 1, 2018
On the second attempt, the pilots managed to land the plane but it overshot the runway, crashing through a barrier and plunging a dozen or so feet into a riverbed and caused the left engine to catch on fire, an Utair spokesman told RIA Novosti.
Early Saturday morning flames were extinguished (Source/ Air Crash)
Both wings broke and there was damage to the undercarriage (Source/ @JacdecNew)
Severe damage to the fuselage (Source/ @JacdecNew)
“There were 164 passengers and six crew on board. Sochi airport firefighters extinguished the flames and evacuated the people. There are no fatalities,” the air carrier said.
Utair said a joint investigation into the crash had been started with aviation authorities. At the time of the incident, there were no delays at the airport.
Passengers said after the impact, emergency inflatable chutes were deployed from the airplane’s exits. Some exits were blocked due to intense fire, so many passengers had to exit on the plane’s wing then jump to the ground.
The video shows the moment the plane erupted into flames, as a passenger using his smartphone caputed the aftermath.
“We crashed, but it’s OK, I guess,” a man can be heard saying in a short video minutes after the jet skidded into a riverbed. The video shows intense flames, as faint screams of distressed passengers can be heard in the background.
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