Russian plane makes emergency landing

Xinhua, July 12, 2011

At least six people were killed and dozens of others were injured as a Russian plane made an emergency landing on a river in Siberia on Monday.

Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said 33 passengers, including one child, and four crew members were aboard the An-24 aircraft.

Regional emergencies authorities said that five passengers died immediately, while another one died later in a hospital.

Yaroslava Karpenko, an official of the regional civil defense department, told Interfax news agency that nearly 30 people were injured in landing and that four of them were in grave conditions.

According to local media reports, a two-year-old child and his mother escaped the plane and were not injured.

Itar-Tass news agency said the plane landed on the western Siberia's Ob River at around 9 am Moscow time (0500 GMT) after a fire was found in one of the engines, adding that the plane partially disintegrated during the landing.

Local reports said pilots tried to land on the Ob River to put out the fire in the plane's left engine, but the plane's tail was destroyed by the impact.

The plane, en route from Tomsk to Surgut, belongs to Angara airline.

After the accident, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted a meeting with Shoigu and ordered the grounding of all An-24 aircraft over safety concerns.

"Everything I said about Tupolev-134 planes must be applied equally to An-24s," Medvedev was quoted by local media as saying.

The An-24 type aircraft has been involved in a series of fatal accidents over the past few years.