Insert: some of the crew members.
A Russian airplane crashed on the outskirts of Moscow on Sunday shortly after takeoff, killing all 71 on board, as Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded an investigation into the disaster.
The Russian-made An-148 had taken off from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and was flying near the capital when it caught fire and fell from the sky, Russia’s state TV reported witnesses as saying. The crash of flight 703 killed everyone on board, Russia’s Transport Minister, Maksim Sokolov, told Interfax.
The airplane, which had made international flights, was operated by regional Saratov Airlines and was carrying 65 passengers and six members of the crew on its way to the city of Orsk on the border of Kazakhstan.
“A few minutes (after takeoff) radio communication was lost with the crew of the airplane and sight of the plane disappeared,” Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said. Other witnesses told Russian media that there was a loud bang before the plane hit the ground. The plane left a crater more than 6 feet deep in the rural surroundings of Ramenskoe region in the southeastern Moscow province, state TV said.
