83 Injured After Jet’s Engines Fail in Moscow
- Posted on December 4, 2010 at 1:58pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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MOSCOW (AP) — A passenger jet carrying at least 155 people made an emergency landing at a snowy Moscow airport on Saturday after its engines failed, Russian officials said. It skidded off the runway and slammed into buildings, killing two people and injuring 83.
The plane, a Tupolev Tu-154 belonging to Dagestan Airlines, was forced to land at Domodedovo Airport, federal aviation agency spokesman Sergei Izvolsky said in televised comments. The cause of the engine failure was unclear, he said.
Officials had said 155 people were on board, but the Emergencies Ministry said in a website statement that the plane was carrying 168 passengers and 8 crew members. It was not immediately possible to resolve the discrepancy.
Izvolsky said the plane had taken off from another Moscow hub, Vnukovo Airport, and was en route to Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s southern region of Dagestan. He said the pilot received signals that engines had cut out about 80 kilometers (50 miles) into the flight at an altitude of 9,100 meters (30,000 feet), and requested an emergency landing at Domodedovo, to the southeast of Moscow.
Federal officials said two people were killed, and Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said in a website statement that 83 injured people were taken to five hospitals.
The federal Investigative Committee said in a website statement that two of the three engines had initially cut out, and the third failed as the plane was coming in to land.
“The plane slid off the runway and collided with buildings,” the statement said, without explaining what kind of structures.
Passenger Vitaly Chumak was quoted by Russian news agency Interfax as saying the plane broke into three parts after landing and barely missed a fence.
In September a Tu-154 airliner was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew when it suffered an electrical system failure while flying from the northern Siberian town of Polyarnyi to Moscow. President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed awards on the pilot, who landed the plane and avoided casualties, despite rolling into a forest outside an abandoned military base.
The Tu-154 has been the workhorse of the Soviet and post-Soviet civilian aviation industry, first entering service in the 1970s. But after a series of crashes involving the aging fleet raised safety concerns, flagship carrier Aeroflot recently withdrew all of its Tu-154s from service, with the last flight in January.
The midrange jet remains, however, the mainstay of smaller airlines across Russia and the former Soviet Union. It is banned from parts of Europe due to excessive engine noise.
The plane that crashed in heavy fog earlier this year killing Polish President Lech Kaczynski also was a Tu-154.
On Saturday, Domodedovo Airport switched scheduled flights to a second runway, and normal service was not affected, officials said in televised comments.
(This version CORRECTS Corrects to 83 injured, not 87.)
*Editor’s note: the title of the story has been updated to reflect that 83 were injured, not killed.
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squeaker
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 3:55pmAs Ron White said “At least the remaining engine made it to the scene of the crash”
Report Post »TOMB2
Posted on December 5, 2010 at 6:41amThe Russians rip off Boeing designs of airframes and Rolls-Royce powerplants and execute manufacturing of both with extreme incompetence.
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 8:00pmVery sad. Gob bless the victims & their families.
Report Post »Tony Nagy
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 7:05pmI agree totally CANUCK44… The pilots would have to have full throttle up on the remaining engine in order to bring the nose up. Also the hard landing causing the landing gear to collapse, which actually helped slow the plane down further. Yes, had this been in warmer weather, the plane most likely would have fire-balled in the less dense warmer air hitting harder. I give credit to the Pilots as well. Sadly two people did lose their lives, and my sincere condolences to the family’s. I wonder if the rest of the passengers realise how lucky they are to be alive. These planes are too old and should all be scraped.
Report Post »NO_POTTERSVILLE
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 6:54pmIt’s possible the pilot executed a fuel jettison somewhere. Either way, it could have been much worse.
Report Post »River0
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 4:01pmIt ran out of fuel. Whenever a plane crashes and there’s no fire, you know the fuel was used up. The same thing happened in Egypt a few months ago to a brand new Airbus. This is unforgivable pilot error.
Report Post »My Two Cents
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 4:35pmI wondered about that but the plane crashed fifty miles into the flight. It would have to have been on empty before takeoff.
Report Post »canuck44
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 5:31pmHighly unlikely. Failure of two out of three engines (this is the old Soviet B-727) will allow some control but it will not climb on that at the weight likely shortly after takeoff. The third engine failed on final to undoubtedly give power loss to pilot and a one shot approach without much control, nothing to take off airspeed except bringing up nose and only brakes to stop it. Undercarriage snaps off at high speed impact and high landing weight (fuel load). A/C slamming into buildings when skidding off runway tends to leave the wings and much of the fuel load behind as suggested in the single available photo. This was likely Jet A, not AVGas and in cold weather does not vaporize much. Its flash point is around 100 degrees.
Report Post »As TXPILOT suggested, they were basically trying to land a rock. It is entirely possible the gear collapse may actually have saved some people as the rock will slow down what was essentially a missile launched from 30,000 feet, but that portion of the investigation may well tell more of the story.
HillBillySam1
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 7:01pmI wonder if it is poor luck, poor maintenance, or perhaps something more dire….sabotage. These planes just seem to start falling apart after all of these years. I know that these are older planes but they certainly aren’t untested. They know what they are and what they are not capable of. If the plane was destined for the Dagestan region in the South, there seems to be a lot of terrorist activity down there. Losing your engines like that so soon in the flight with no warning (and no birds, presumably) makes you wonder a little bit. Very sad regardless of the cause.
Report Post »RugDog
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 3:19pmI wonder how obama will blame this one on Bush.
Report Post »Nevada Tumbleweed
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 6:12pm@RUGDOG I’m sure that Hillary has the State Dept working on a statement right now. My guess is the Bush administration used up all of the world’s jet fuel causing this one to run out. Primarily a result of tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 3:03pmI have tons of respect for the great job this flight crew did to minimize the loss of life during the tragic incident. As a long-time professional pilot, you train constantly for something like this, but really hope it never happens. An aircraft of this type with no functional engines = a really bad glider, and I’m amazed it turned out as well as it did.
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:42pmMakes you want to fly to Russia, doesn’t it? NOT I complain about the government, but the FAA sounds like a good idea right now.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:33pmHate to hear that the plane crashed, and that people were killed and hurt. Especially this close to Christmas. But we always have to be thankful that most of them made it out alive. Sounds to me like they got some bad fuel. Trash or something. Hopefully they will find the answer and fix the problem. Hopefully we won‘t have to read about anymore accidents until the holiday’s are over anyway.
Report Post »Maximus
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:06pmMan, too bad!
Report Post »bullcrapbuster
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 9:31pmI flew back and forth across Russia many times on the old TU154. They took a terrible pounding from the potholed Russian runways. If they did not load and unload them carefully they would tilt backwards.
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:05pmShame people died. Decent plane when it was new, time for replacements.
Report Post »The Libertarian Atheist
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:32pmreplacement people? huh?
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:58pmTo Libertarian Atheist: Decent plane, old, replace it. Simple to understand.
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 3:38pmI wonder if the engines were GE
Report Post »6.8 SPC
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 6:57pmKate-
Report Post »Never GE on a Tupolev aircraft, the -154 uses 3ea Soloviev D-30KU154 engines.
TruthTalker
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:01pmHeadline doesnt match the story, but may the Lord watch over their families.
Report Post »Ezekiel38
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:04pmYes, May the Lord comfort them in such a difficult time!
Report Post »Strife
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:05pmDitto this
Report Post »MeteoricLimbo
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 2:27pmAmen
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 4:52pmI ask the Father to watch over the families of the lost; and heal swiftly the scars, physical and emotional of the remaining survivors – both on the ground and the plane.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 4:54pm@The Blazers
General question: It seems like there are more crashes and damages to planes being reported lately, does anyone know if this is just a statistical fluke, or a normal rate due to the sheer number of flights being made each day?
Report Post »Nevada Tumbleweed
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 6:04pmThis could have been a lot worse. Pilot might well be a hero.
Report Post »shasta
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 8:05pmThese are the stories WE never want to see. Prayers for the families that have lost loved ones.
Report Post »racialcoward
Posted on December 4, 2010 at 9:08pmWHO WAS ON BOARD THAT PLANE?
Crash reminds us of the crash in the Katryn Forest where the whole Polish Government died. Russian Air Traffic Control was guiding that plane. Anyone know who was on that flight?
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