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Experienced crew flies Tu-204 airliner – Transport Minister

According to Sokolov, the governmental commission will gather at the airport in on Sunday morning

MOSCOW, December 29 (Itar-Tass) — The Tu-204 airliner, which made a forced landing at the Vnukovo airport, has been flown by the experienced crew, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told journalists on Saturday.

“The commander’s logged flight hours reached 15,000 hours, the second pilot had 10,000 hours and the engineer had also 10,000 hours,” the Russian minister said.

In his words, the coefficient traction was over 0,5 what is considered normal. The governmental commission will determine the reasons for the airliner to overrun the runway. The minister also said assistance to families of the dead and injured crewmembers had been taken under special control.

Totally, there are eight crewmembers aboard the airliner. Four of them died, he added.

“The flight operations director reported that the airliner had made the landing in the landing zone. But it could not stop and overran the runway. Then the Tu-204 airliner faced the localiser system and the airport’s wire entanglement. The airliner broke through them and penetrated into the Kiev highway,” Sokolov said.

Three crewmembers – the commander, the second pilot and the engineer were aboard the airliner. Five attendants were also aboard the airliner, he said.

According to Sokolov, the governmental commission will gather at the airport in on Sunday morning.

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