A Boeing 737 airliner belonging to the Tatarstan airline company crashed at the Kazan international airport on November 17 while on a flight from Moscow to Kazan.
All the passengers on board the airliner (50 people) were killed, the RIA Novosti news agency reports. Previously, 44 people were reported killed.
The Boeing 737 crashed while trying to abort its landing in order to make a second landing approach. According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Boeing 737 exploded.
The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Irina Rossius, said that the plane crashed during landing at 19:30 (Moscow time) and that there was an explosion.
Initial information indicates that pilot error could be the cause of the accident, a law enforcement source told RIA Novosti. Other possible causes are bad weather and technical failures. The Russian Weather Center said that the weather conditions were normal for this type of aircraft.
"All the forces of the Volga Regional Emergency Center are on high alert. Experts from Tsentrospas (the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations’ search-and-rescue service) are ready to fly from Moscow to Kazan,” said Rossius.
"[There were] three attempts at a second approach. The Tatarstan airline company’s Boeing 737-500 was flying from Moscow to Kazan. The aircraft crash-landed on the runway. On board were 44 passengers and six crewmembers. Information about the victims is being clarified. Emergency rescue operations are being performed at the site," said a representative of Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya).
The Kazan airport has been closed to airliners, Rosaviatsiya’s spokesman Sergei Izvolsky told the Russia-24 television channel.
