14 SEP 2008 _______________________________________ *No survivors in Russian jetliner crash *Russian jet crash kills all 88 on board *88 killed in Aeroflot crash in Urals *10 pilots told to pay $1.17m to leave airline *************************************** No survivors in Russian jetliner crash Eighty-eight people -- including seven children -- were on board Boeing 737 en route to Perm from Moscow was operated by Aeroflot Nord Investigators: The cause of the crash was likely to be technical failure Rescue teams on the scene recovered the plane's flight data recorder MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A jet carrying 88 people crashed early Sunday morning in western Russia, killing everyone on board, an airline spokesman said. Wreckage from the Aeroflot-Nord Boeing 737 which crashed near Perm lies across a railway track. Twenty-one foreigners were on the flight, including passport-holders from Azerbaijan, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine, said Lev Koshlyakov, spokesman for flight operator Aeroflot Nord. Authorities are trying to confirm the presence of an American on board, Koshlyakov said. The person was listed as an American in the passenger list, but has a Russian last name, he said. Authorities intend to check with the U.S. embassy for a final determination. The Boeing 737 was en route to Perm from Moscow when the pilots lost communication with air traffic control just before landing about 3:10 a.m. (2110 GMT), Koshlyakov said. He described the weather at the time as "mediocre." Watch more about the crash » According to The Associated Press, the plane was on its approach to land amid low cloud cover when it crashed into an unpopulated area of the city, close to residential buildings. Aeroflot officials said the plane was circling at about 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) in "difficult weather conditions" when it lost contact with ground dispatchers, AP said. "It slammed in front of my house and there was a huge flame. And it looked like fireworks," an unidentified woman in Perm told Russian state television. "It just threw me across my sheets ... Then my daughter ran in from the next room and asked if a war had started." The most likely cause of the crash was technical failure, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the federal prosecutors' Investigative Committee, said in televised comments, reported by AP. A section of rail track was destroyed in the crash, which scattered paper, clothing, life preservers and parts of engines for several hundred meters (yards) along the track. Sections of the plane's fuselage reading "Aeroflot" and "Boeing" lay askew on the rails. Part of the Trans-Siberian railway was also shut down as a result of the rail damage, AP quoted Alexander Burataeva, a spokesman for the national railroad company, as saying. Rescue teams were on the scene and had recovered the plane's flight data recorder. ************** Russian jet crash kills all 88 on board PERM, Russia (AFP) — An Aeroflot Boeing-737 jet crashed Sunday on the outskirts of Perm in Russia's Ural mountains killing all 88 passengers and crew on board, the airline said. At least 20 foreigners and seven children were on the plane which witnesses said burst into flames as it prepared to land on a flight from Moscow. The wreckage cut off a stretch of the Trans-Siberian railway. "It was burning while still in the sky and it looked like a falling comet," one female witness told Russia's Vesti-24 television. Aeroflot said controllers lost radio contact with the plane shortly after 5:20 am (2320 GMT Saturday), moments before it came down just a few hundred metres (yards) from a main residential area. Aeroflot confirmed there were no survivors and said the dead included nine people from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine and one each from France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, and Turkey. One passenger was also said to be American but US officials were reportedly checking that information. Among the victims was General Gennady Troshev, a former top commander of Russia's war in Chechnya and advisor to ex-president Vladimir Putin, Interfax news agency reported, citing Russia's transport ministry. Aeroflot chief executive Valery Okulov refused to answer whether it could have been a terrorist attack and said that was a matter for the investigating commission. "We should wait for the official results," he said. "As the plane was coming in for landing, it lost communication at the height of 1,100 metres and air controllers lost its blip," an Aeroflot statement said. "The airplane was found within Perm's city limits completely destroyed and on fire," it added. One witness described seeing the plane pass over his house before watching in horror as it exploded and sent massive chunks of burning wreckage flying to the ground. "The plane was flying over our building, falling, and it hit the ground about 200 metres (650 feet) away and broke up," a local resident, who only gave his name as Maxim, told AFP. "It blew up in the air, the pieces fell on the ground. The main part containing the passengers fell in a dacha (country house) area with gardens. It didn't hit the main residential area." Vesti-24 showed smoking hot metal strewn across a wooded area and investigators combing through the dark with flashlights. Later pictures showed clothes and other possessions scattered far and wide. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, though a source quoted by RIA Novosti suggested that an engine failure could have sparked flames on board and led to the crash. Both black box flight recorders were found in the wreckage, Interfax news agency reported, citing investigators. Aeroflot spokesman Lev Koshlyakov told journalists the plane had been given "a full technical inspection" early this year and was judged to be in a "proper condition." The airline set up a crisis centre at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-1 airport and in Perm for relatives of the victims and pledged compensation of up to two million rubles (some 80,000 dollars or 55,000 euros) for each person lost. It was the worst air disaster involving a Russian airliner since a Tupolev-154 flying to Saint Petersburg went down near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk in August 2006 killing all 170 passengers on board. President Dmitry Medvedev offered his condolences to the grieving families and Russia's Transport Minister Igor Levitin was dispatched to Perm to personally head the probe into what happened. Monday was declared a day of mourning in Prem. Plane wreckage on the tracks led to the closure of a stretch of the Trans-Siberian railway between Perm and Yekaterinburg, police said. The plane had been leased by Aeroflot from a Dublin-based company Pinewatch Limited in July until March 2013, the airline said. It was not clear how old it was. The crash will doubtless raise renewed concerns about the safety of air travel in Russia where experts have pointed to major faults in the training of crews as well as Russia's ageing fleet of passenger jets. An air safety commission announced in January that the average age of the country's international airliners was 18 years, and its regional jets 30 years. *************** 88 killed in Aeroflot crash in Urals Russian officials began an investigation today into the causes of an Aeroflot jet crash that killed all 88 passengers and crew near the city of Perm. Witnesses said that the Boeing-737 aircraft was on fire in the air shortly before it crashed on the approach to Perm airport at the end of a flight from Moscow early this morning. The dead included seven children and 21 foreigners - nine from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine, and one national from each of France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland and Turkey. A United States citizen was also said to have been on board, though American embassy officials were seeking to confirm this. Shattered fragments of the plane were scattered over an area of more than four square kilometres and destroyed a 100-metre section of track used by the Trans-Siberian railway. Oleg Chirkunov, the Governor of Perm, said that there would be "identification problems" with the passengers because the impact of the crash had been so severe. General Gennady Troshev, a former commander of Russia's war in Chechnya, was named among the victims. He was accused of permitting soldiers to commit vicious abuses of human rights during the campaign and was sacked by then President Vladimir Putin in 2002. An Aeroflot statement said that the jet had "lost communication at the height of 1,100 metres" as it approached Perm airport at around 5am and disappeared from air traffic controllers' radar. It continued: "The airplane was found within Perm's city limits completely destroyed and on fire." Flight 821 was operated by Aeroflot Nord, a regional subsidiary of the Russian carrier. Witnesses told how the plane came down over their homes before exploding near a main residential neighbourhood of the Ural Mountains city, 750 miles east of Moscow. "I felt an explosion, it threw me off the bed... My daughter ran in from the next room crying 'What happened? Has a war begun or what?'. My neighbors, other witnesses told me that it was burning in the air, it looked like a comet," one woman told Vesti-24 television. "The plane was flying over our building, falling, and it hit the ground about 200 meters (650 feet) away and broke up," a man told AFP. "It blew up in the air, the pieces fell on the ground. The main part containing the passengers fell in a dacha (country house) area with gardens." A spokeswoman for Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said that there was no suggestion of terrorism. Interfax news reported that both black box flight recorders had been found in the wreckage. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the federal prosecutors' Investigative Committee, said that technical failure was the most likely cause. Aeroflot said that it had leased the aircraft in July until March 2013 from a Dublin-based company, Pinewatch Ltd. Aeroflot's deputy director, Lev Koshlyakov, said that the 15-year-old jet was declared to be in "proper condition" in a full technical inspection earlier this year. "Aeroflot has a good reputation in the field of safety," Mr Koshlyakov told reporters at Moscow's Sheremyetevo airport, where the flight had originated. He described the crash as "a hard blow for our reputation". The company has promised to pay two million rubles (about £45,000) to the families of each victim. An emergency centre for relatives of the dead was also established in Perm, which has declared tomorrow a day of mourning. Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union have some of the world's worst air safety records. A Boeing 737 also crashed three weeks ago shortly after take-off in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, killing 64 of the 90 people on board. Russian jets suffered 33 accidents last year, killing 318 people, a six-fold increase on 2005. An air safety commission disclosed in January that Russia's regional aircraft were 30 years on average and its international fleet 18 years. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4751854.ece ************** 10 pilots told to pay $1.17m to leave airline (China Daily) - The courts have ordered 10 pilots of China Eastern Airlines to compensate their employer a total of nearly 8 million yuan ($1.17 million) for leaving their jobs, local media has reported. The Wuhan Intermediate People's Court ruled on Thursday that each of the pilots was to compensate the airline's branch in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, 700,000 to 1 million yuan, depending on their service term and the training programs they received, the Changjiang Times reported. Zhang Hua, who was ordered to pay 700,000 yuan to the airline, told the paper that the ruling was of no surprise to him. Still, he said he did not regret leaving China Eastern. "I don't want to live under constant high pressure," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "I want to work for a company that is humane and that has a relaxed atmosphere." In May last year, 13 pilots of the Wuhan branch of China Eastern handed in their resignations and were asked to pay a total compensation of more than 100 million yuan. The employer claimed that the money was to compensate it for the investments it made to train the pilots. In August, the provincial labor arbitration committee ordered the 13 pilots to pay more than 9 million yuan to compensate the airline for their departure. Daunted by the large amount, three of the pilots reportedly withdrew their resignations. The remaining 10 pilots brought their case to the Qiaokou District People's Court. The court later announced that the 10 pilots should compensate their employer a total of nearly 10 million yuan. The airline lodged an appeal to the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court, which made the final ruling this Thursday. Zhang Qihuai, a legal expert with the China University of Political Science and Law, said he had told the pilots in a legal consultation that the compensation being ordered by the courts was reasonable, since the amount was about what the company had paid for training the pilots. "Most State-owned carriers in China sign tenure contracts with pilots to prevent them from leaving the company," Zhang said. Company officials in Wuhan and Shanghai declined to comment on the ruling on Friday. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-09/13/content_7025113.htm ***************