Moscow, Russia — A Russian plane crashed in Moscow on Saturday killed four people and wounded four more crew members.
The plane crashed after it overshot the runway at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, which is the third busiest in Russia.
The Inquisitr previously reported that the Tu-204 plane, operated by Red Wing Airlines, burst through a perimeter fence onto a highway near the airport.
It broke into pieces and caught fire after running through the fence. In the process, the airplane’s cockpit sheared off from the fuselage. The wings also broke off.
Yahoo! News reports that the Ministry of Healthcare released a statement about the plane crash, saying that four crew members were killed. The four surviving crew members are suffering from brain injuries.
It is possible that the accident was caused by icy conditions, since the plane landed in the middle of snow and cold weather, but the cause of the accident is not yet known.
The plane, a twin-engine mid-range passenger plane, carries a capacity of 210 passengers when in service. Before Saturday’s accident there were no fatal incidents involving the Tu-204 in 17 years of service.
Reuters notes that some witnesses recalled seeing a man thrown from the plane as it crashed through the barrier between the runway and the highway.
The Emergency Situations Ministry announced that those killed in the Russia plane crash were the pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, and one flight attendant. The other four crew members were flight attendants. One witness recalled:
“We saw how the plane skidded off the runway … the nose, where business class is, broke off and a man fell out. We helped him get into a mini-bus to take him to the hospital.”
Wreckage from the Russian plane remains scattered across the highway as crews investigate the cause of the fatal crash, which was initially thought to be pilot error.
