Viktor Marchukaites/AFP/GettyAt least 40 people were killed Sunday when a Russian plane made a fiery crash landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, according to Russian officials. The Russian Aeroflot carrier plane had reportedly departed from Moscow, en route to the northern city of Murmansk. But video shows the plane quickly returning at about 7:30 p.m. local time, skidding across the Moscow runway with the back half engulfed in flames and billowing thick clouds of black smoke. It’s not yet clear why the fire started. The Associated Press notes: some local reports say that the plane caught fire before turning back; others claim that the crash landing could have ignited the plane’s engines. The airport backs the latter claims, saying the hard emergency landing sparked the blaze and that the plane turned back due to other technical problems. The plane was reportedly carrying 73 passengers and 5 crew members. Elena Markovskaya, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said early Monday local time that 41 of those people died, and 37 survived. But Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova later said that 38 people had survived, The Associated Press notes. The Investigative Committee told The Associated Press that four other people were injured; the country’s Emergencies Ministry reported that six had been hospitalized. Horrified passengers on nearby flights took to social media with harrowing photos and videos of engulfed plane.Once the plane stopped on the tarmac, some passengers could be seen escaping on the plane’s inflatable yellow slides. This story is developing.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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