MOSCOW – Forty-one people including at least two children have died after a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing and erupted in a huge ball of fire and black smoke at Moscow’s busiest airport on Sunday, investigators said.
Dramatic footage that went viral on social media showed Aeroflot’s Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crash-landing and then speeding along the runway at Sheremetyevo international airport, flames pouring from its fuselage.
Passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front and running from the blazing plane as huge black columns of smoke billowed into the sky.
“There were 78 people including crew members on board the plane,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding that the plane had been flying to the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk.
“According to the updated info which the investigation has as of now, 37 people survived.”
A spokeswoman for the investigators confirmed the death toll was 41.
Another 11 people were injured, Dmitry Matveyev, the Moscow region’s health minister said earlier in the day.
