MOSCOW: The brother of a Russian regional leader was one of two passengers killed in a crash landing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Saturday that also injured 82 people, the Investigations Committee said on Sunday.
The incident “lead to the death of two passengers, and 82 were hospitalised.
Among the dead…(is) Gadzhimurad Magomedov,” a statement on the Investigations Committee website said.
Magomedov, 49, is the brother of the president of Russia’s Republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus, a restive, mostly Muslim province on the Caspian Sea.
Magomedov and the other victim’s bodies were flown to Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, on Sunday morning.
Three of the passengers hospitalised after the plane ran off the runway during an emergency landing, remained in serious condition, the Health Ministry reported on its website. The Tupolev-154 airliner, operated by Dagestan Airlines and carrying 163 passengers and nine crew, crash landed nearly 30 minutes after taking off from Vnukovo airport when all three engines failed.
The Tu-154 plane was the same model that crashed in April killing Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and 90 others, raising concerns over Russia’s ageing aviation infrastructure. Russia has launched an investigation into the accident for violations of transport safety rules and are looking into possible causes including crew error and technical failure.
The airline’s general director, Mirza Omariev, told Ekho Moskvy radio that the plane went through repairs in 2009 and all equipment had been serviced.
Pictures showed the aircraft broken into three pieces, having slid off the runway and through trees.
