RUSSIAN PASSENGER JET CRASHES IN UKRAINE, KILLING ALL 170 ABOARD
Sergei Venyavsky
AP Writer Irina Titova contributed to this report from St. Petersburg.

AP Worldstream
Aug 23, 2006

Investigators on Wednesday combed through the wreckage of a Russian
passenger jet that crashed into a Ukrainian field during a severe
thunderstorm, killing all 170 people aboard.

The flight recorders of the Pulkovo Airlines’ Tu-154 have not been
found.

The recorders could explain the cause of the third fatal crash this
year of a Russian passenger airliner.

Emergency officials said preliminary information suggested that
weather caused the crash about 45 kilometers from the city of Donetsk
in eastern Ukraine.

The plane was flying to St. Petersburg from the Russian Black Sea
resort of Anapa _ a holiday destination popular with families, flying
over Ukraine when it ran into trouble.

"Right now, it is difficult to determine the cause of the accident,"
Ukraine’s Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovsky said in televised
remarks. He noted, however, that weather had been severe, and suggested
the plane might have flown into a cyclone.

Ukrainian officials said a storm with heavy winds, driving rain and
flashes of lightning was raging through the region at the time. Russian
Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova, citing
information from her Ukrainian counterparts, said the plane was likely
hit by lightning.

The pilot asked to make an emergency landing before disappearing
from the radar screens at around 2:30 p.m. (1130GMT), said Mykhaylo
Korsakov, spokesman for the Donetsk department of Emergency Situations
Ministry, said. Rudkovsky also said that the pilot had asked for
permission to change course by about 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the
east, and was given permission.

The wreckage was found about an hour after the plane disappeared
from radar screens in Sukha Balka, a village about 400 miles (640
kilometers) east of Kiev. Under sunny skies Wednesday, fragments of
the plane _ its engines, parts of the landing gear, the nose and
chunks of the fuselage _ were scattered around fields and a small
forest. Authorities had stretched red tape around a 700 square meters
(7,500 square feet) area as investigators hunted for the flight
recorders.

Vadim Seryogin, head of the team from the Russian Emergency Situations
Ministry, said Russian investigators, prosecutors and security service
officials were at the site. Authorities planned to begin collecting
the bodies later Wednesday, and relatives were expected to visit the
crash scene.

Of the 170 people on board, 45 were children, Pulkovo Airlines
deputy director Anatoly Samoshin told reporters at the St. Petersburg
airport. The list of passengers, most of whom were from St. Petersburg,
appeared to include many families.

The crash was the third major incident involving Russia’s aviation
industry this year. It came less than two months after an Airbus A-310
of the Russian airline S7 skidded off a runway and burst into flames
on July 9 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing 124 people.

On May 3, an A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia crashed into the
Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi
in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.

Russian-made Tu-154s are widely used by Russian airlines for many
regional flights.