122 confirmed dead in Siberian plane crash

MOSCOW -- A Russian passenger plane carrying at least 201 passengers skidded off a rain-slicked runway in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday and plowed through a concrete barrier, bursting into flames. At least 122 people were killed, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.\nFifty-eight people were injured in the accident, the second major commercial airline crash in two months in Russia. The commission investigating the crash said preliminary information indicated that the braking system on the Airbus A-310 operated by airline S7 had failed, Russian news agencies reported, citing officials it did not identify.\nThe plane was carrying 193 passengers and eight crew members on a flight from Moscow. At least 14 passengers were younger than 12, airline spokesman Konstantin Koshman said.\nMany of the children were headed to nearby Lake Baikal on vacation, according to Russian news reports.\nEmergency Ministry spokeswoman Natalia Lukash said three people whose names were not on the passenger list were pulled unconscious from the wreckage. It was not clear if they had been on the ground at the time of the crash or were flying as unregistered passengers.\nSome of the survivors owed their lives to a flight attendant, who opened an escape hatch, the ministry said.\nThe plane veered off the runway on landing and tore through a 6-foot-high concrete barrier. It then crashed into a compound of one-story garages, stopping a short distance from some small houses.\nA witness said he heard a bang and the ground trembled.\n"I saw smoke coming from the aircraft. People were already walking out who were charred, injured, burnt," Mikhail Yegeryov told NTV television.\n"I asked a person who was in the Airbus what happened, and he said the plane had landed on the tarmac but didn't brake. The cabin then burst into flames."\nThe aircraft's two flight recorders, or "black boxes," were recovered and were being deciphered.\nTransport Minister Igor Levitin suggested the rainy weather was a factor but did not rule out a technical problem.\n"The landing strip was wet. So we'll have to check the ... technical condition of the aircraft," he told Russian state television.\nLevitin added that the pilot had radioed ground control to say the aircraft had landed safely before communication was cut off.\nAirline official Alexander Zyubr said the plane was in good condition, according to RIA-Novosti.\nS7, formerly known as Sibir, is Russia's second-largest airline, having been carved out of Aeroflot's Siberian wing after the collapse of the Soviet Union.\nCash-strapped and saddled with aging aircraft, regional airlines whittled out of Aeroflot were once notorious for their disregard for safety but their records have improved in recent years.\nIrina Andrianova, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, said it took firefighters more than two hours to put out the blaze. There were two explosions caused by the ton of fuel in the plane, Moscow radio reported.\nRussian television showed smoke rising from the wreckage and firefighters clambering on top.\n"It was traveling at a terrific speed," the spokeswoman said. She said the front end of the plane was crumpled in the crash 2,600 miles east of Moscow.\nDetails began to emerge of the chaotic aftermath of the crash. One flight attendant opened the rear escape hatch and let a number of passengers out, the ministry's regional branch said.\nTen passengers managed to escape this way and other survivors, including a pilot, were saved by firefighters and rescuers, ITAR-Tass reported.\nPresident Vladimir Putin conveyed his condolences to the victims' relatives, who gathered at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, where the plane took off.\nA man who said his brother, sister-in-law and their 4-year-old son were on the plane sat on a curb outside a crisis center near the airport fighting back tears.\n"They're not on the list" of people in hospital, said the man, who gave his name only as Vyascheslav.\nHis friend Larissa Kolcheva, a 27-year-old Muscovite, said the three had flown to Moscow from the Moldovan capital Chisinau on Saturday morning and had been on their way to visit relatives in Irkutsk.\n"We met them yesterday morning at this very airport. It was great. We spent the day with them seeing Moscow ... Everything was beautiful," she said starting to cry.\nSunday's disaster was the fourth air crash in Irkutsk in the past 12 years.