41 feared dead in Russian plane blaze disaster: investigators
Moscow: Forty-one people including at least two children are believed to have died when a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing and was engulfed in flames at Moscow's busiest airport Sunday, investigators said.
Dramatic footage shared on social media showed Aeroflot's Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, land at Sheremetyevo international airport, flames and black smoke pouring from its fuselage.
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.
"There were 78 people including crew members on board the plane," the Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding it had headed to the northwest Russian city of Murmansk.
"According to the updated info which the investigation has as of now, 37 people survived." Another 11 people were injured, Dmitry Matveyev, the Moscow region's health minister said earlier in the day. Three of them had been hospitalised but they were not in a serious condition, he added.
Investigators said they were looking into various lines of inquiry and it was premature to draw any conclusions about the cause of the accident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had offered his condolences to the victims' loved ones, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has also ordered a special committee to investigate the disaster.
The jet carrying 73 passengers and five crew members had just left Sheremetyevo 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 newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted one passenger, Petr Egorov, who said: "We had just taken off and the aircraft was hit by lightning.... The landing was rough, I almost passed out from fear."
"The plane sent out a distress signal after takeoff," a source told Interfax news agency.
"It attempted an emergency landing but did not succeed the first time, and on the second time the landing gear hit (the ground), then the nose did, and it caught fire," the source added.
Interfax, citing an anonymous source, said the plane had landed with its fuel tanks full because, having lost contact with air traffic controllers, it was too dangerous to dump its fuel tanks over Moscow.
Several flights have been diverted to other Moscow airports or Nizhny Novgorod, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of the Russian capital.
The Sukhoi Superjet-100 was the first civilian aircraft developed in Russia's post-Soviet era and at the time of its launch, in 2011, was a source of national pride.
But it struggled to convince buyers from airlines outside Russia, and several foreign carriers that did buy it have since prefered to cut back its use or phase it out completely, citing its reliability.
The Russian government offered subsidies to encourage Russian airlines to buy the Superjet and Aeroflot became its main operator. In September 2018, it announced a record order of 100 Superjet-100s
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Several Gurugram schools receive hoax bomb threats
Gurugram (PTI): Several Gurugram schools received another hoax bomb threat emails on Wednesday morning, prompting police to launch searches on the premises.
Police said the email was sent by the 'Khalistan National Army', with threats issued to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to declare April 29 as the "40th Khalistan Declaration Day". It also threatened to bomb the Red Fort in Delhi.
Police said it was a hoax as no suspicious items were found after an intensive search.
Several schools, including Shri Ram, Amity, and the HDFC school, received threatening emails at 8.33 am, when classes had already begun, police said.
The school administrations became aware of the threats around 9 am and immediately informed the police, a senior police officer said.
The schools immediately implemented emergency protocols, with many declaring a holiday and asking parents to take their children home safely, the officer said.
A large number of anxious parents gathered outside the schools, as police and bomb squad teams reached the spots and started checks.
"Around 10 schools have approached the police from morning until now over bomb threats. Police teams are alert, and searches are underway on all the premises", the officer said.
As soon as the information about this email was received, police in Gurugram and Delhi swung into action and started investigation.
Schools immediately implemented emergency protocols upon receiving the mail. Many schools declared a holiday and sent messages to parents, asking them to take their children home. Large crowds of parents gathered outside the schools.
The schools were sanitised by sending a bomb disposal squad as well as a dog squad.
A senior police officer said that police teams thoroughly searched the school premises, classrooms, buildings, and surrounding areas. No suspicious objects or explosive materials were found during the investigation.
"Police teams are seriously investigating the entire matter. Cyber experts are being consulted to determine the authenticity of the email, its source, and the identity of the sender", added the officer.
This is the third time since January that schools have received fake bomb threats.
In March, at least a dozen schools in the city received bomb threat emails, which later turned out to be hoaxes.
Similarly, on January 28, as many as 13 schools received hoax bomb threats via email, forcing authorities to evacuate campuses and suspend classes.
Last month, police arrested a Bangladeshi national whose email ID was allegedly used to make a bomb threat for some payment.
