Boeing 737 from Dubai crashes in southern Russia
THE 737 circled the airport for two hours, waiting to land. When it finally got to try, the descent killed everyone on board.
THE first pictures have emerged of the Flydubai 737 aircraft that crashed just short of the runway in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
The United Arab Emirates based budget carrier has confirmed all 62 people on board the plane perished after the Boeing 737-800 went down close to the city’s airport in the early hours of Saturday morning, plummeting 3,000 feet in just 15 seconds.
The images show debris scattered on a wet runway with Russian emergency crews nearby.
Flydubai flight FZ981 had travelled from Dubai in the UAE to Rostov-on-Don, with 55 passengers and seven crew members aboard. Eighteen men, 33 women and four children were travelling on the plane, the airline confirmed.
The CEO of Flydubai, Ghaith Al Ghaith, said on Saturday the airline was in “deep shock” over the incident. The carrier has offered no preliminary cause for the crash.
Both of the plane’s flight recorders have been recovered undamaged, the Investigative Committee of Russia said in a statement.
Reports suggest most of the passengers were Russian while 11 on board, including the crew, consisted of nationals from other countries.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed no Australians were aboard the aircraft.
“We extend our condolences to the families of those involved in the FlyDubai Boeing 737 plane crash which occurred in Rosov-on-Don, Russia,” a DFAT spokesperson said in a statement.
Russian news station RT reported the flight crashed as it attempted a second landing at the city’s airport. The first landing was aborted due to bad weather, and the plane had been circling the aiport for two hours.
Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region some 950 kilometres south of Moscow, was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling local journalists that the plane crashed about 250 metres short of the runway. News reports said the plane caught fire after the crash.
Mr Golubev said: “By all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level.”
Dramatic CCTV footage of what is thought to be the crash has emerged. From a nearby building it shows a plane descending over a road before crashing, a fireball engulfing the scene.
In a statement, the airline said they regretted the “tragic accident” and were working with local emergency services.
“While we are still awaiting final confirmation, it is with great sadness that we report we believe there are no survivors.
“The aircraft departed from Dubai International at 1820 GMT (5:20am AEDT) bound for Rostov-on-Don. The accident occurred in Rostov-on-Don at approximately 0050 GMT.”
Speaking about the incident, Mr Ghaith said: “Our primary concern is for the families of the passengers and crew who were on board. Everyone at Flydubai is in deep shock and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those involved.
Flydubai’s Mr Ghaith told a press conference in the Gulf Arab emirate that it was “too early” to determine the cause of the crash.
“We will have information about the circumstances of the incident and the black box in the future, and an investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Russian authorities and we are waiting to see the results,” Mr Ghaith said.
“We don’t yet know all the details of the accident but we are working closely with the authorities to establish the cause. We are making every effort to care for those affected and will provide assistance to the loved ones of those on board.”
Flight radar route of #FZ981 that crashed on landing https://t.co/bfeuoVdREn pic.twitter.com/QFVm3WKyX6
— RT (@RT_com) March 19, 2016
Aircraft maker Boeing also released a statement that said they were “gathering more details” on the incident.
A flight-tracking service says the plane made one failed landing before the disaster.
Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the website Flightradar24, told AP on Saturday that the 737 initially tried to land at Rostov-on-Don at 2231 GMT (9:30am AEDT).
“Based on our data, what it looks like is the aircraft made an initial landing attempt.”
He said the plane then entered a holding pattern at 2327 GMT near the airport, then left the holding pattern to try and land again at 0028 GMT. The flight offered its last data at 0041 GMT and lost contact.
The company also tweeted that other aeroplanes had trouble landing at the airport with an Aeroflot flight from Moscow making three attempts to get on the ground at around the same time.
We're aware of reports coming out of Russia and our team is currently gathering more details.
— Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) March 19, 2016
A long-time friend of crash plane’s Cypriot pilot says the 38-year-old was going to quit the airline after recently accepting a job with Ryanair in Cyprus.
The friend told AP Aristos Socratous, whose wife will give birth to the couple’s first child in a few weeks, wanted to raise his family in Cyprus despite a drop in his wages.
The friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want to be named discussing his friend’s personal matters, said Socratous was an experienced pilot who had no complaints about FlyDubai and was happy about being promoted to full captain a year and a half ago.
Socratous had previously worked for Helios Airways, the Cypriot airline that shut down after a plane crash in 2005.
Flydubai is a low-cost airline owned by the UAE Government which is a major force in aviation in the Middle East. Prior to this incident, Flydubai had a largely trouble-free safety record.
Founded in 2009, the airline flies to almost 100 destinations in the Middle East, Africa and Europe from it’s base at Dubai’s international airport. The airline has a fleet entirely made up of the Boeing 737, one of the world’s most popular short haul aircraft, with 50 flying in the airline’s colours. The 737 is operated by airlines throughout the world including Qantas and Virgin Australia.
In between #FZ981’s 1st attempt & crash, #SU1166 made 3 landing attempts before diverting. https://t.co/CUG9VZdMp3 pic.twitter.com/PFDL2V2DXb
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 19, 2016
TASS said weather data from the area indicated that winds were anywhere from 50 — 80km/h at the time of the crash and there was light rain.
On October 31, a Russian airliner blew up in the air over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard. Investigators determined it was destroyed by a bomb on-board.
Rostov-on-Don is a city of one million people close to the Ukraine border and the capital of the Southern Federal District, one of Russia’s nine regions. The city’s airport remains closed with flights diverted to the city of Krasnodar.
Flydubai has released two emergency hotlines — + 44 203 4508 853 or +9714 293 4100.
-with AAP.
Qantas pilot named as crash victim
A Qantas pilot has been named as one of three victims who died in a horror mid-air crash in Sydney on Saturday.
Five injured in gas explosion at campground
Five people have been injured in a gas explosion at a campground in South Australia, with two of them in a serious condition.
Seaplane ditches into ocean at holiday hotspot
An investigation is underway after a seaplane carrying five people ditched into the ocean at a popular tourist hotspot.