Plane crash in Russia kills 36, including entire roster of KHL team-Russia's national hockey league

[Serb]

Other sources say it's only 80%, but it's still damn bad, not to mention his other injuries.
But he is a strong guy and gonna make it. God help him.


And this is not a Moscow hospital, obviously.

[Serb]

Omsk will never forget his beloved son.

Can't believe he's gone. Ten years he protected our net. His family lives here. He represented our Omsk hockey school not only on domestic but international stage as well being the unchallenged goalie of Ukranian national team. Omsk loved him. Even when he moved to a new club and played against us at our home arena there always were our fans with bunners who cheered Alexander. We'll never forget.

[Combat Ingrid]

Maybe it's just my imagination but it seems like those plane crashes have occurred quite frequently in Russia recently?
Regardless, it must be truly terrible for the few survivors to see their team disappear just like that. RIP

[Felch]

Never mind. What I had to say was already in the OP.

[Krill]

RIP

[SlowwHand]

Burn recovery is a tough path. I'm not even going to speak of the specifics.

[Asher]

You obviously pick-up a right time for your dumb jokes, dumbass.
FYI, in Soviet Russia planes haven't fell so often as they do now when Russia is not Soviet anymore.
Yak-42 in service since middle 70's. And it's a 9th incident with a plane (and only two incidents were due to mechanical failures others are crew errors and hursh weather conditions). Notice also that out of nine planes that crushed only three belonged to Russian/Soviet companies and had Russain/Soviet crews. So you can pretty much shove your "crappy planes, crappy maintenance, crappy pilots" argument in your ass.

Yak-42 and Boeing-727 are planes of the same class.
Yak-42 - 9 incidents in 36 years
Boeing-727 - 40 incidents in 45 years.
Go, figure.

The Yak-42 was introduced in 1980 and 178 were built.
The Boeing 727 was introduced in 1963 and 1,831 were built.

[Serb]

I'm perfectly sober, but I sob. They are all gone. All of them. I really have tears in my eyes.

[Asher]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/poor-quality-fuel-emerges-as-possible-cause-in-fatal-russian-jet-crash/article2157869/

Poor-quality fuel emerges as possible cause in fatal Russian jet crash

The Yak-42 Russian jetliner that crashed Wednesday, killing 43 people, was relatively new, it didn’t appear to be overloaded and the plane’s captain had nearly 7,000 hours of flying experience.

Poor-quality fuel is now emerging as a possible reason the crew’s attempt to take off was undermined. Investigators will look at factors such as human error and engine failure as they probe the cause of the crash that wiped out most of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team, Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov told reporters Thursday.

However, one witness, a pilot, told Komsomolskaya Pravda he heard all the plane engines go silent moments before the crash.

This suggested a problem with the fuel rather than a mechanical problem striking all three rear-mounted jet engines at the same time, the pilot said.

That speculation was echoed in other Russia media outlets.

“Refuelling the plane with low-quality fuel is seen as a priority reason for the engine malfunction,” a source in the aviation industry told the state news agency RIA Novosti.

Mr. Okulov denied earlier reports that it took the plane too long to take off and gain altitude.

However, Arius Novick, the manager of Yaroslavl’s Tunoshna airport, told Russian news channel Life News that the plane struggled to gain the necessary speed for takeoff before it rolled to the left and crashed into the river nearby.

Some experts initially wondered if the plane’s failure to take off was caused by the plane being overloaded, but a Yak-42 can seat up to 120 passengers – nearly three times the number of people the charter flight carried when it went down.

The victims included former NHL players such as Canadian head coach Brad McCrimmon, coach Alexander Karpovtsev and former players Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karel Rachunek, Josef Vasicek and Karlis Skrastins.

The team’s goalie coach, Jorma Valtonen, was supposed to board the flight but was saved by a decision to leave him home to mentor the second-team netminders, Mr. Valtonen told Finnish newspaper Ilta Sanomat.

The jetliner was relatively new, having been built in 1993, according to the AeroTransport Databank.

The charter operator that flew the team has grounded by civil aviation regulators until Saturday while an investigation is to begin.

The Russian charter airline had been cited before for safety deficiencies.

Moscow-based Yak Service was investigated by the European Commission in July 2009 for “verified evidence of major safety deficiencies affecting flight operations,” according to the commission’s official journal.

Yak Service had to restrict its use of two types of aircraft, including the Yak-42 model that crashed, until November of 2009.

The carrier then ran in trouble again last year. In May 2010, Yak Service was banned from operating in the airspace of the 44 members of the European Civil Aviation Conference. The restrictions were lifted in August, except for two Yak-40 planes.

[Az]

Every time I take a plane in Russia I am a little bit afraid.
These things happen way too often there. :/

[Ben Kenobi]

Damn. RIP.

Especially Pavol Demitra. You were good for us.

[VetLegion]

Hockey is not big here, in fact I just watched an entire game for
the first time in my life last year (a local team was apparently going
strong in an central european league of some sort). Not a bad
sport.

RIP

[Az]

Just saw the news, the say it may be a mechanical fault after all.

In any case, RIP, and condolences to all affected by the tragedy...

[onodera]

All the KHL teams will likely donate players to Lokomotiv to help it rebuild the team.

[Serb]

Galimov needs transplantation of trachea.