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Engine failure blamed for Russian air crash

Perm - 88 killed in air crash
Perm - 88 killed in air crash

Engine failure is being blamed for the Aeroflot Boeing 737-500 plane crash in Russia which killed all 88 people on board.

The dead included 21 foreign nationals flying from Moscow to Perm in the Urals when it plunged into scrubland and railway on the edge of the city, narrowly missing houses.

Russian officials investigating the crash said a faulty engine had forced the plane to crash.

Fragments of debris covered a section of the Trans-Siberian railway, forcing trains to divert around the Perm area.

Seven children were killed in the crash and Aeroflot said 21 foreign nationals were among the dead - nine from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine and one person each from France, Switzerland, Latvia, the US, Germany, Turkey and Italy.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent condolences to the Perm regional governor.