The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has ordered an inquiry into a plane crash in Siberia in which all 145 passengers and crew were killed. The Tupolev jet, owned by a regional airline, was on a flight from the Urals to the far eastern port city of Vladivostok. It crashed as it approached the city of Irkutsk for a refuelling stop. Rescue workers have recovered both of the plane's black box flight recorders.
On a visit to the crash site today, the Russian Emergency Situations Minister said that the TU-154 airliner's sudden descent from a height of 800 metres had probably been caused by a failure of all three of its engines. He also claimed that as the plane was making its approach to the airport at Irkutsk, the crew had informed air traffic controllers that everything was normal. He added, however, that it was too soon to make judgements about the cause of the crash.
A senior air transport official, who is close to the investigation team, said that engine failure could have resulted from an electrical short-circuit, or even from a sudden lack of fuel. However, this appeared unlikely because "the crew would have alerted the control tower immediately".
