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Brake failure cited as reason for plane crash

Vladimir Radyuhin

Airbus bursts into flames after overshooting runway

— PHOTO: AP

SMOULDERING WRECKAGE: The damaged Airbus A-310 plane in the Siberian city of Irkutsk early on Sunday in this televsion image.

MOSCOW: A Russian plane burst into flames after overshooting the runway and crashing at high speed into concrete garages outside the airport while landing in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday morning, killing 124 persons on board. The airliner was carrying 193 passengers and eight crew members.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a day of national mourning on Monday.

Most of the 124 passengers died in the fire after the remaining fuel in the plane's tanks exploded after the collision with the garage buildings. It took five emergency services more than two hours to extinguish the flames.

Eleven persons, including two stewardesses, escaped unhurt, getting out of the burning plane through the emergency exit. Many passengers were hospitalised with burns and toxic poisoning. Of 14 children on board, five survived. Seven of 12 foreigners on the plane also survived. There were no Indian nationals among the passengers.

Witnesses said the plane, an Airbus A310 of the Sibir Airlines, seemed to touch down normally, but then failed to slow down, rolled off the runway and hit the concrete garages at great speed.

"The crew reported to ground control that the plane had landed, but then radio contact was lost," Russia's Transport Minister Igor Levitin told Russian television. He was said it was raining when the plane landed.

Investigators said a technical failure could have caused the crash. The A310, built in 1987, served with the U.S. PanAmerican and Russia's Aeroflot airlines before it was bought by the Sibir carrier a couple of years ago.

It had clocked in 52,000 hours of flight. Sibir officials insisted the plane was in good technical shape. Another A310 passenger plane belonging to an Armenian airline crashed in stormy weather off Russia's Black Sea coast while preparing to land in May, killing all 113 persons on board.

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