A plane crashes in southern Russia, 61 people dead

According to official report, on Saturday morning, a jet from Dubai has crashed and burst into flames in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, in which around 61 people dead on board. “The plane, coming from Dubai, crashed as it came into land at the airport in Rostov-on-Don,” said Marina Kostioukova, spokesperson for the local emergencies ministry. The plane was a Boeing 737-800 flying for the budget carrier FlyDubai. In a statement, the budget carrier said it regrets to confirm that flight FZ981 crashed on landing and that fatalities have been confirmed. It adds: “We are doing all we can to gather information as quickly as possible. At this moment our thoughts and prayers are with our passengers and our crew who were on board the aircraft. We will do everything we can to help those who have been affected by this accident.” The carrier offered no preliminary cause for the crash. Winds were anywhere from 14 to 22 metres per second (30-50 miles per hour) at the time of the crash and that there was light rain. Ian Petchenik, a spokesperson for the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, told The Associated Press that the plane initially tried to land at Rostov-on-Don then entered a holding pattern and tried to land again before contact was lost. On October 31, a Russian airliner blew up in the air over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard. Investigators determined it was destroyed by a bomb onboard. Russian news reports said most of those aboard were Russian tourists but there were unspecified foreign passengers as well.