50 dead in Russian airliner crash

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian passenger airliner crashed Sunday night while trying to land at the airport in the city of Kazan and officials said all 50 people aboard were killed.

The Boeing 737 belonging to Tatarstan Airlines crashed about 7:20 p.m. local time (1520 GMT; 10:20 a.m. EST). There were no immediate indications of what may have caused the crash. Weather in the city soon after the crash was reported to be light precipitation and winds of about 8 meters per second (18 mph).

Kazan is about 720 kilometers (450 miles) east of Moscow, where the flight originated.

A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry, Irina Rossius, said there were 44 passengers and six crew members aboard and all had been killed.

Russia's last plane crash came in January, when a Russian-made Tupolev belonging to Red Wings airline careered off the runway at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, rolled across a snowy field and slammed into the slope of a nearby highway, breaking into pieces and catching fire. Investigators say equipment failure caused the crash, which killed five people.