170 feared killed in Ukraine crash

A Russian passenger jet crashed in eastern Ukraine just minutes after sending a distress signal on Tuesday...

A Russian passenger jet crashed in eastern Ukraine just minutes after sending a distress signal on Tuesday, killing all 170 people on board, officials said. Dozens of children were among the victims.

Russian authorities said they had ruled out terrorism. A bad thunderstorm was raging in the area at the time of the crash, said a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry in Donetsk, who identified herself only as Yelena. She said there was lightning and heavy winds.

The Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 was en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St Petersburg and disappeared from radar screens while flying over eastern Ukraine around 2:30 pm after sending an SOS message, emergency officials said.

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The plane went down near Donetsk, about 640 km east of the capital, Kiev.

“Unfortunately, we believe that no one managed to survive,” Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andriyanova said in televised comments.

Another Russian aviation official said the plane might have run into strong turbulence, the Interfax news agency reported.

“The plane most likely was hit by lightning,” Andriyanova said in televised comments. “After it fell, it broke apart and burst into flames.”

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There were 45 children aboard the plane, Pulkovo Airlines deputy director Anatoly Simushin told reporters at the St Petersburg airport. He said the 16-year-old plane had flown 9,000 km since its last maintenance checkup.

Simushin said the pilot sent a total of four distress signals as he tried to climb above the storm, then descended to an exceptional low altitude of 9,800 feet.

Officials could not confirm Russian agency reports that said the plane’s crew sent out four SOS messages before the crash.

–ANNA MELNICHUK

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