12 Azeris killed in Russia plane crash
12 Azerbaijanis were killed in a plane crash in Russia`s Perm
province on Sunday.
An Aeroflot Boeing 737 aircraft crashed in a ball of fire near the Ural mountains, killing all 88 people on board.
Four of the Azerbaijani victims were members of the same family.
Also, 24 of the people who died were foreign nationals, including citizens of Ukraine, Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, the United States and Italy.
Officials have said engine failure caused the crash, dismissing fears of a terror act. Russia`s intelligence agency, the FSB, said there was no evidence that explosives could have played a role in downing the aircraft.
One of the black boxes on board the plane has been recovered and is now being examined.
The plane, flying from Moscow, disappeared from radio contact in the early hours of Sunday and crashed half an hour later in Perm, 1,340 km east of the Russian capital. Russian media quoted law enforcement agencies as saying that different causes were being reviewed, but technical failure of the aircraft was the most likely cause of the accident. However, the preliminary theory has not been confirmed as, prior to take-off, the plane had undergone technical tests and was found to be in proper condition, according to authorities.
Aeroflot Nord airline, which operated the airliner, said work was underway to identify the remains of the victims, saying it is challenging to cite their names given that most of the victims are unrecognizable. Relatives have been asked to provide blood tests to help identify the victims through DNA testing.
Aeroflot has allocated up to 2 million Rubles (about $80,000) in compensation for the burial of each victim.
A day of mourning was announced in the city of Perm, where the plane came down. President Dmitry Medvedev held a minute of silence at a Kremlin meeting on Monday.
"Before we start: yesterday we had a tragedy, a plane crashed and people died and I would like to honor their memory," Medvedev said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has forwarded a letter expressing his condolences to his Russian counterpart.
Sunday`s accident was Russia`s worst crash since 170 people died in August 2006 when a TU-154 plane crashed on a flight from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St Petersburg.
The last Aeroflot plane crash occurred in March 1994 in Siberia when 70 people were killed.
An Aeroflot Boeing 737 aircraft crashed in a ball of fire near the Ural mountains, killing all 88 people on board.
Four of the Azerbaijani victims were members of the same family.
Also, 24 of the people who died were foreign nationals, including citizens of Ukraine, Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, the United States and Italy.
Officials have said engine failure caused the crash, dismissing fears of a terror act. Russia`s intelligence agency, the FSB, said there was no evidence that explosives could have played a role in downing the aircraft.
One of the black boxes on board the plane has been recovered and is now being examined.
The plane, flying from Moscow, disappeared from radio contact in the early hours of Sunday and crashed half an hour later in Perm, 1,340 km east of the Russian capital. Russian media quoted law enforcement agencies as saying that different causes were being reviewed, but technical failure of the aircraft was the most likely cause of the accident. However, the preliminary theory has not been confirmed as, prior to take-off, the plane had undergone technical tests and was found to be in proper condition, according to authorities.
Aeroflot Nord airline, which operated the airliner, said work was underway to identify the remains of the victims, saying it is challenging to cite their names given that most of the victims are unrecognizable. Relatives have been asked to provide blood tests to help identify the victims through DNA testing.
Aeroflot has allocated up to 2 million Rubles (about $80,000) in compensation for the burial of each victim.
A day of mourning was announced in the city of Perm, where the plane came down. President Dmitry Medvedev held a minute of silence at a Kremlin meeting on Monday.
"Before we start: yesterday we had a tragedy, a plane crashed and people died and I would like to honor their memory," Medvedev said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has forwarded a letter expressing his condolences to his Russian counterpart.
Sunday`s accident was Russia`s worst crash since 170 people died in August 2006 when a TU-154 plane crashed on a flight from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St Petersburg.
The last Aeroflot plane crash occurred in March 1994 in Siberia when 70 people were killed.
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