Russian plane crashes, at least 14 dead

Technical failure may have caused a Russian passenger airplane to crash shortly after take-off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport July 28, killing at least 14 people as it nose-dived into a forest and burst into flames.

Valery Chernov, chief of the crash investigation, said July 29 that the plane's stabilizer went awry just two seconds after the Ilyushin Il-86 took off.

Earlier, airport and crash investigation officials said they thought engine failure might have caused the crash.

The exact nature of the technical fault will not be known until investigators have studied the plane's black boxes.

Sixteen people were on board the widebody plane, including four flight crew, two technicians and 10 off-duty cabin attendants, when it suddenly started climbing too steeply and then fell into a wooded area outside Moscow.

The plane was on a technical flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg and was not carrying any passengers.

Two air stewardesses, who had been in the rear of the plane, survived, one with only light injuries.

One of the two attendants suffered a concussion of the brain and was put in intensive care, while the other suffered only minor injuries and was put under observation, an official close to the investigation said.

The source, who did not want to be named, said the pilots did not know how to respond to the technical failure because of the plane's previously good safety record.

The pilot may have made "an incorrect response" to the engine failure, the investigators believe.

Moscow's public prosecutor has opened an official inquiry into the crash to see whether it resulted from a violation of air transport safety rules, ITAR-TASS reported.

The 14 who died were charred beyond recognition, and their identification was expected to be difficult, an official with the Russian emergencies ministry told ITAR-TASS.

According to a Moscow regional fire service official cited by Interfax, two people picking mushrooms in the forest were also killed by the crash, but this information was not confirmed elsewhere.

The Il-86, which has a capacity of 350 passengers, was operated by Pulkovo regional airlines based in St. Petersburg.

Witnesses cited by ITAR-TASS said the aircraft ploughed into a forest a few hundred meters from Dmitrovskoye Shosse, a main highway in northern Moscow, from an altitude of about 200 meters.

The plane burst into flames, with the debris scattered across an area of about 1,000 square meters, the Sheremetyevo airport official said.

ITAR-TASS cited emergency ministry officials as saying that an explosion aboard the plane a few seconds after take-off caused it to burst into flames and crash. But the Sheremetyevo official denied any explosion had occurred.

First made in 1980, the Il-86 is a popular aircraft in the Russian commercial fleet and covers great distances across the vast country, with a range of 5,000 kilometers.