Sunday, July 29, 2007

Thirteen people have died in Russia after two accidents, one with an airplane and one with a helicopter.

An Antonov An-12 cargo airplane crashed early Sunday morning in the Moscow airport Domodedovo, leaving no survivors. According to a spokesperson of the Ministry of Emergencies, the airplane “fell four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the runway and caught fire. There were eight people on board, including crew and passengers.” Five crewmembers and three passengers were on their way from Moscow to the cities Bratsk and Omsk, in Siberia.

On Saturday, 5 others died, among whom two were children, in the crash of a private helicopter in the Udmurtia Republic, near the Ural mountains. A spokesperson for the Russian aviation agency Rosaviation explained that the helicopter hit power cables and consequently fell into a local water reservoir, and sank.