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Red Wings to pay 2 million roubles to victims’ families, 1 million to injured

The jet was returning to Moscow empty, with only eight crewmembers onboard

MOSCOW, December 30 (Itar-Tass) —— Red Wings aviation company will pay two million dollars to families of the victims in the accident with Tu-204 and one million dollars to the injured, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said on Sunday.

“The aviation company’s Director General Leonid Itskov said that the payments will be 10,000 dollars per every victim. Besides, the company will pay two million roubles per very victim and one million roubles per every injured,” the ministry said.

The company will also undertake all expenses for burial services, treatment and further rehabilitation of the injured.

“The company is contacting families of the victims,” the source said.

Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov ordered the Moscow region’s Minister of Transport Alexander Zaitsev to control the issue.

Representatives of the Emergency Situations Ministry and of the Interior Ministry reported to Sokolov on how their services had worked on the site. He thanked them for the effective work.

Presently, investigation is underway. The Interstate Aviation Committee studies flight recorders.

The accident took place at 16:45 Moscow time on Saturday. A Tu-204 jet of Red Wings Airlines that had arrived from the Czech Republic overshot the runway at Vnukovo airport outside Moscow and landed into a highway. It broke into three fragments and caught fire. The plane’s fuselage blocked traffic along the Kievskoye highway. It took some thirty minutes to put out the fire.

The jet was returning to Moscow empty, with only eight crewmembers onboard, after having taken Russian tourists to the Czech Republic. Four crewmembers, including the pilot, were killed in the crash, four others were injured.

A criminal case has been opened on charges of violations of air traffic and aircraft operation rules. Investigators are looking into three possible causes - bad weather, technical failure and pilot error.

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