The plane was en route from Blagoveshchensk to Tynda, and a criminal probe has been opened into the crash while investigators still collate the data for a full report
The final words of a pilot killed alongside 48 passengers in a fireball crash have been revealed. Last month, horrifying detail was made public about the wreckage of an An-24 aircraft which was nothing more than debris and “decapitated bodies” when rescuers found it in Russia’s Amur region.
A total of 48 people died with no survivors after the aircraft crashed while making a second attempt to land in remote Tynda airport.
The plane slammed trees on a mountainside and broke into pieces dismembering bodies as the wreckage exploded into flames. “Everything has been destroyed, and there are only corpses,” said one witness at the site. Some bodies were reported to be charred.
Another told Russian defence ministry TV channel Zvezda: “They’re not letting anyone near them because everything is scattered around, scattered and decapitated bodies. In short, it’s horrible…..”
Flames burned in the wreckage of the almost 50-year-old plane hours after the crash. Flight records from the aircraft were found today at the forested site.
And now the final words of the pilot have been made public from the recovered black box.
The preliminary report into the crash states: “Between 12:56:41 and 12:56:44, the audio recorder recorded voice information from the SRPPZ: ‘Check altitude. Low ground. Low ground.”
The report also details how the dispatcher attempted to make contact with the aircraft several times after getting the signal, but no response was heard.
It also confirms that the passengers and crew were killed by the accident, and that the plane was “destroyed and engulfed in a ground fire that erupted after the accident”.
The plane was en route from Blagoveshchensk to Tynda, and a criminal cash has been opened into the crash while investigators still collate the date for a full report.
However, questions over the condition of the Angara Airlines plane and the carrier’s safety procedures still remain after eight planes had been banned from flying and four maintenance staff suspended by regulator Rostransnadzor.
Questions also relate to co-pilot Kirill Plaksin, 37, killed alongside captain Vyacheslav Logvinov, 61, who was allowed to fly the aircraft on a day he was due in court over “refusal to undergo a medical examination related to the use of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances” – in a case which could have led to a jail sentence.
Reports said relatives would receive a total of at least £46,000 for each victim. An impromptu shrine to the 48 dead was seen up at Tynda, where the aircraft had been due to land.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.
#Pilots #words #fireball #crash #killed #decapitated #bodies #scattered
