Updated at 11.39pm
Forty-one people are believed to have died after a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing at Moscow’s busiest airport and caught fire, investigators said on Sunday.
“There were 78 people including crew members on board the plane,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement. “According to the updated info which the investigation has as of now, 37 people survived.”
Dramatic footage shared on social media showed the Russian Aeroflot-owned aircraft, flames and black smoke pouring from its fuselage, land at Sheremetyevo international airport.
Passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front and running from the blazing plane as huge black columns of smoke billowed into the sky.
The Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 carrying 73 passengers and five crew members had just left Sheremetyevo on a domestic route when the crew issued a distress signal, officials said.
“Flight Su-1492 took off on schedule at 6:02 pm (15H02 GMT),” said a statement from the airport.
“After the take-off, the crew reported an anomaly and decided to come back to the departure airport. At 6:30 pm, the aircraft made an emergency landing,” it added.
The tabloid…
