Here's what happened on the fiery emergency landing in Russia that killed 41 people
Advertisement
Aeroflot Flight SU1492 is a daily scheduled flight from Moscow to the city of Murmansk inside the Arctic Circle. On Sunday, May 5, the flight was operated by a Sukhoi SuperJet 100, registration number RA-89098.
Advertisement
Aeroflot Flight 1492 took off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on Sunday at 6:03 p.m. local time.
Advertisement
Five minutes into the flight, the SuperJet has turned north toward Murmansk and climbed to an altitude of 10,500 feet. It's unclear when the communications failure caused by lightning occurred. However, it's most likely to have happened before this point.
That's because the flight immediately turns back towards Sheremetyevo Airport and begins to descend.
Advertisement
The plane then spends roughly ten minutes descending while circling over Moscow as it comes in for a landing.
Once the plane came to a stop, flight attendant Tatyana Kasatkina opened the emergency exits at the front of the aircraft. "When the plane stopped, the evacuation immediately began," she told the London Evening Standard. "I kicked the door out with my leg and pushed out the passengers so as not to slow the evacuation."
Unfortunately, 40 of the 73 passengers died on the flight. Flight attendant Maksim Moiseev died trying to evacuate passengers from the back of the plane.
Source: NPR.
Advertisement
Some of the surviving passengers have been criticized for taking their carry-on luggage with them during the evacuation, wasting precious time that may have saved the lives of others on the plane.
Firefighters were eventually able to douse the flames with fire-retardant foam.
Source: Euronews.
Advertisement
But the damage was done. The intense heat from the fire had melted the jet's fuselage.
According to Russian news agency Tass, Flight SU1492's black boxes have been recovered and an investigation led by Yevgeny Ditrikh, Russia's Transport Minister, is underway.
Advertisement
On Monday, investigators began working their way through the charred remains of the jetliner.
A makeshift memorial has been set up at Sheremetyevo Airport.
Advertisement
Aeroflot announced on Monday that the families of passengers who perished on the flight will receive $76,584 in compensation from the airline.
Next Story
