President Dmitry Medvedev has called for rapid changes in Russia’s troubled air transport industry as the country mourned a crash that killed 43 people, among them most of a leading hockey team.

Investigators were today searching for flight recorders in the shattered remains of an airliner that crashed on the banks of the Volga River, killing 43 people including most of one of Russia's premier hockey teams.

A passenger jet travelling from Moscow to the Ural Mountains city of Perm crashed while preparing to land early today, killing all 88 people aboard, officials said.