41 people are reported dead when a Russian plane made an emergency landing at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow and burst into flames.
A video obtained from the incident shows the Aeroflot plane bursting into flames as it lands at the airport with passengers rushing out of it.
The Russian accident is said to have been caused by a technical problem but survivors of the attack claim it was hit by lightning. Onboard the plane were 73 passengers with the incident claiming the lives of two children.
Initial reports indicate that the plane landed while on fire but another report indicates that it caught fire after a rough landing at the airport.
The aircraft landed with full fuel tanks because the crew lost contact with air traffic controllers and decided it was too dangerous to dump fuel over Moscow, Interfax added.
“There are 37 survivors – 33 passengers and four members of the crew,” said Yelena Markovskaya, an official involved in the investigation of the crash.
A flight attendant was also reportedly killed in the incident. Five people are in hospital. One witness said it was a “miracle” anyone escaped.
What Actually happened to the plane
The aircraft, a Sukhoi Superjet-100, left the airport at 18:02 local time (15:02 GMT), bound for Murmansk. Its crew sent a distress signal when “malfunctions” occurred in bad weather shortly after take-off.
After making an emergency landing at the airport, the plane’s engines caught fire on the runway, Aeroflot said, adding that the crew “did everything to save the passengers”
One passenger who survived the crash, Petr Egorov, was quoted by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily newspaper as saying that the flight “had just taken off and the aircraft was hit by lightning”, adding: “The landing was rough – I almost passed out from fear.”