Aeroflot’s Superjet100 explodes during emergency landing, kills 41
41 people have died after a Russian passenger jet made an emergency landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and got burst into flames as the rear section of the plane caught fire and spilled thick black smoke on Sunday, May 5, 2019.
The Aeroflot’s Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft was flying from Moscow to Murmansk, a Russian city in the Arctic circle, when an emergency on board forced it to return. Once the plane had come to a halt, passengers escaped using emergency slides from the forward doors. The cause of the trouble is not yet known.
The Prime Minister of Russia – Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a special committee to investigate the matter. The President of Russia – Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
As per the data available with flight tracker Flightradar24, the plane started at 6:00 p.m. local time and was in the air for 30 minutes. A total of 78 passengers, including 5 crew members were on board. Out of 37 survivals, 5 are currently receiving treatment in hospital.
Reacting to incident, Kremlin tweeted, “Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in the tragedy at Sheremetyevo airport.” Kremlin is often referred to the Government of the Russian Federation in a similar sense as ‘White House’.
One of the passenger – Dmitry Khlebushkin said, “I am alive only thanks to the stewardesses. The girls stood there in the smoke, it was dark, extremely hot, but they pulled people out and helped them get down the chutes.”
The aircraft landed with fuel tanks full because the crew lost contact with air traffic controllers and realised that it could be dangerous to dump fuel over Moscow.
For the records, Sukhoi manufactures military aircraft and is known especially for its expertise in manufacturing fighter jets. Sukhoi Superjet 100 is their civilian aircraft and first post-Soviet commercial airliner to have been designed and built in Russia. The Superjet made its first flight in 2008. Globally, more than 100 aircrafts of the same model are in operation.
Earlier in 2019, a Superjet 100 operated by Aeroflot was forced to abandon its flight to Astrakhan, Russia and return to Moscow due to problems regarding undercarriage. In 2018, Aeroflot-operated Superjet 100 faced similar problems in Minsk, Belarus. However, the model is European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Certified and has safety certifications from several other aviation authorities.
