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Identification SSJ-100 plane crash victims to take nearly a month — source

A total of 41 people were killed in a plane crash at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on May 5

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The process to identify the remains of 41 people killed in the crash of Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft may take nearly a month, a medical source told TASS on Monday.

"At the moment, the procedure of taking DNA samples from the relatives of all those killed has been completed. The process to analyze the samples is beginning. The procedure will take nearly a month," the source said.

On May 5, Aeroflot’s Sukhoi Superjet-100 passenger plane with 73 passengers and five crewmembers onboard that was bound for Murmansk returned to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport nearly half an hour after its takeoff. The aircraft crash-landed and burst into flames. A total of 41 people were killed and ten others remain hospitalized.

A criminal case was opened under Part 3 of Article 263 of Russia’s Criminal Code (violation of the rules of air traffic safety and operation of aircraft entailing the negligent death of two or more people). The investigators are considering several causes of the crash, including pilot error, technical malfunction and bad weather.