Workers comb snowy field for clues to Russian plane crash
Investigators quickly ruled out a terrorist attack in Sunday's crash of the An-148 regional jet bound for Orsk in the southern Urals. The air disaster has reignited questions, however, about the twin-engine plane that was developed jointly by
The model has a spotty safety record, with one previous crash and a string of major incidents in which pilots struggled to land safely. The carrier,
The plane crashed several minutes after taking off from
The Investigative Committee,
The plane's fuel tanks exploded on impact, gouging a deep crater and scattering wreckage across 30 hectares (74 acres), according to the
Deputy Prime Minister
President
Officials said the search for victims' remains will take a week. The passengers ranged in age from 5 to 79, according to a list from the
The captain had more than 5,000 hours of flying time, 2,800 of them in an An-148, the airline said. The other pilot had 812 hours of experience, largely in that model.
Another Russian operator that uses the plane, Angara, based in eastern
President
The An-148, developed by
Most of about 40 such planes built under the cooperative agreement were manufactured by a Russian manufacturer in Voronezh, with
Its production in
Alexander Neradko, the head of Rosaviatsiya, the state agency overseeing civil aviation, said it will make a detailed scrutiny of
Some regional carriers in
Pilot
"They are trying to save money on maintaining their planes to prevent going under," he said.
One An-148 crashed during a training flight in
In 2010, another An-148 operated by a Russian carrier suffered a major failure of its control system, but its crew managed to land safely.
In September, one engine of a Saratov Airlines An-148 shut down minutes after takeoff, but it landed safely. And in October, another An-148 that belonged to a different Russian carrier suffered an engine fire on takeoff but also managed to land. Engine shutdowns have occurred on several other occasions.
The last major airline crash in
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