At least 13 dead in Moscow plane blaze: Russian agencies

At least 13 people died yesterday after a passenger plane on fire attempted an emergency landing at Moscow’s busiest airport as flames and thick black smoke poured from the fuselage, Russian news agencies reported.

“For the moment, we confirm the death of 13 people, two of them children,’ said a spokeswoman for the crash investigation team, Svetlana Petrenko, the agency reported. Dramatic footage shared on social media showed the Aeroflot-owned aircraft engulfed in flames as it landed on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo, Moscow’s busiest airport.

In the videos, passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front and running from the blazing plane as huge black columns of smoke billowed into the sky. The Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 carrying 73 passengers and five crew members had just left Sheremetyevo, on a domestic route, when the crew issued a distress signal, officials said.