12 dead as Russian airliner crashes

A Russian Il-86 cargo plane with 12 crew members aboard crashed today while taking off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo-1 airport, an official of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.

Vasily Nayuk said that rescue workers had already found one body and were searching for the rest. Russian news media reported that all of those aboard were killed.

The cargo plane was on its way from Moscow to St Petersburg on a technical flight. The cargo jet crashed while taking off and plunged into a nearby forest, barely missing the busy Dmitrov highway north-west of the capital.

The highway was busy, as many Muscovites were on their way back into the city from their country homes at the end of a hot summer weekend.

The aircraft belonged to the Pulkovsky airlines, which flies between Moscow and St Petersburg.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations said preliminary information indicated that there were 12 people on the plane, although that was not definitive.

A correspondent for Russia’s NTV television said the plane was on fire, and that the aircraft had been cordoned off by police.

NTV said the plane had crashed nose down, burst into flames and that a huge plume of smoke was visible.

The Il-86 has been a workhorse of Russian airlines for nearly 30 years. It is a four-engine wide-bodied plane.