Plane with 170 on board crashes
22/08/2006 15:17  - (SA)  

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Increase in SA plane crashes Increase in SA plane crashes Fourth air accident in 36 hours Fourth air accident in 36 hours 200 feared dead in plane crash 200 feared dead in plane crash 23 survive Russian plane crash

Kiev - A Russian airliner with 170 passengers and crew aboard crashed on Tuesday in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian officials said.

"A Tupolev 154 flying from Anapa to Saint Petersburg sent a distress signal at 15:37. At 15:39 it disappeared from radar screens," a spokesperson for Russia's emergency situations ministry told AFP in Moscow.

A spokesperson for Ukraine's emergency situations ministry also confirmed that the plane had gone down.

The reason for the crash was not immediately clear but Interfax news agency quoted the head of Russia's air traffic control service as saying that the plane went down after entering an area of severe air turbulence.

Ukrainian ministry spokesperson Igor Krol said Ukrainian rescue teams had located the wreckage of the plane, Interfax news agency reported.

"The plane is burning on the ground," Interfax quoted Krol as saying.

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