All news

Last respects paid to An-28 crash plane victims in Kamchatka

The funeral of five passengers of the crashed aircraft are underway in the town

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 15 (Itar-Tass) — People in Kamchatka on Saturday are paying last respects in the town of Palana to those killed in Wednesday morning crash of the Antonov An-28 passenger plane. The funeral of five passengers of the crashed aircraft are underway in the town, Itar-Tass learned at the press service of the government of the Kamchatka Territory.

The bodies of five more accident victims, including the plane pilots, on September 14 were brought to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three of them will be buried here, the bodies of another two will be transported outside the peninsula. All the costs of the bodies’ transportation are assumed by Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airline to which the crashed plane belongs.

The An-28 plane owned by Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airline on September 12 was performing a flight on the route from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana. There were 14 people on board, including two pilots and 12 passengers, among which there were two children. The aircraft collided with Mount Pyatibratka, 10 kilometres short of the destination. Ten people, including pilots and a four-year old girl, were killed. Four passengers got severe injuries.

All those who survived the crash were seated in the tail part of the plane.

Three injured people - a man, a woman and a 13-year old boy - are currently staying in an intensive care unit of the Kamchatka territorial hospital in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. One man is undergoing treatment at the Palana town hospital. Medics assess the condition of adult patients and grave, nut stable. The teenager's condition extremely grave. He is still in a coma.

Representatives of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) came to the peninsular on Thursday to investigate the causes of the accident. The Kamchatka branch of the Far Eastern District Air Transport Department told Itar-Tass that head of Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) Alexander Neradko also arrived to participate in the investigation actions. The flight recorders with the flight parameters and crewmembers' voices have been found and passed to experts.

The investigation has been considering three versions of the accident cause – a technical malfunction, the crew’s erroneous actions and the bad weather conditions within the criminal case opened over the accident. The search operation at the crash scene is over.