MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. As many as fifty-five passengers, including 17 children, have sought medical attention after an aircraft made an emergency landing in the Moscow Region, a source in the regional Center for Disaster Medicine informed TASS on Thursday.
"A total of 55 passengers, including 17 children, have sought medical attention. Six people have been taken to the hospitals, five of them, including a child, are in the district hospital, one is in the Zhukovsky hospital," the source said.
Meanwhile, Ural Airlines Director General Kirill Skuratov told TASS that all passengers willing to continue their trip to Simferopol would be taken to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport after they went through medical examinations. "We are ready to put families with children on the next available flights. A reserve aircraft will arrive in Domodedovo in the afternoon," he said.
The plane that made a crash landing was significantly damaged and won’t perform flights in the near future, the airline said in a statement.
About one tonne of fuel leaked from the passenger jet, emergency services told TASS.
"The plane had 16 tonnes of fuel in its tanks. It had spent a tiny 500 liters. After the emergency landing a leak occurred. It has been eliminated by now. Up to one tonne of fuel may have leaked," the source said.
Flight data recorders of the Airbus A321 plane are intact and will be handed over to experts from the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), an official spokesman for the Federal Air Transport Agency said.
"Black boxes of the A321 plane have not been damaged in the emergency landing near Moscow and will be sent to the IAC," the spokesman said.
An Airbus A321 made a crash landing near Zhukovsky International Airport in the Moscow region earlier on Thursday. According to the airline, both engines of the plane failed after hitting birds. There were 226 passengers and seven crew members aboard the aircraft.
A criminal investigation has been launched into the emergency landing.