The aircraft completely fell apart at the start of the runway.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A low budget passenger aircraft of FlyDubai – FZ981 (Boeing 737-800) bound to Russia carrying 62 passengers including 2 Indians crashed while attempting to land in Rostov-on-Don city airport early on Saturday morning.
The FlyDubai flight FZ981 took off from Dubai and was scheduled to land in Rostov-on-Don airport at 1.20 am but the flight, after close to two hours of delay, went down at 3.50 am while attempting to land, killing all the passengers and the crew members on board.
According to TASS, an emergency source said there were 55 passengers and seven crew members on the flight.
The FlyDubai authorities have confirmed that 44 Russians, 8 Ukraine, 2 Indians and one passenger from Uzbekistan have died in the first ever major disaster of the airliner.
The Ministry of External Affairs, India has confirmed that the two Indians killed in the crash are Miss Anju Kathirvel Aiyappan and Mohan Shyam.
According to reports, Anju and Mohan hail from Kerala and were trained ayurveda nurses who got married in November 2, 2014.
Anju has been working in Russia since 2011 and after their marriage in 2014 that Mohan also joined her in a Ayurveda resort in Russia. Both had left from Kochi on Thursday completing their first visit to Kerala after marriage.
“I will speak to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj seeking her help to see what can be done,” said Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
He also added that he spoke to Mohan’s father and has assured all help to see how best the state government can help the grieving families.
According to the emergency ministry, the pilot had to circle the airport for the winds to clear and while reattempting to land the tail wing of the aircraft clipped the runway.
Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Southern Regional Centre chief Igor Oder said Boeing 737-800 fell apart and caught fire during the second attempt to land.
“The aircraft completely fell apart at the start of the runway,” Oder said.
A footage of the airliner crashing in the airport has surfaced on YouTube video caught on a security camera pointing towards the airport. The video has the flight crashing down with a huge explosion with sparks reaching high in the sky.
UAE offers its deepest condolences to the families of the victims & to the Russian government&people for the tragic accident of Fly Dubai.
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 19, 2016
According to authorities, most of the people on board the aircraft were residents of Rostov-on-Don, confirming that there were also foreigners among them.
The law enforcement suspect a crew error caused by bad weather as the possible reason for the crash.
According to the weather data, a recorded wind speed of 97 Kph was passing through the airport area when the plane crash landed. There are also reports about a light shower.
Viktor Yanutsenko, an emergencies ministry official helping coordinates the emergency response, was quoted by Russia’s RIA news agency saying “Unfortunately, they all died.”
Hidden feature in #NewFR24
In the speed&altitude chart you can mark and area to zoom it inhttps://t.co/i2bpUtP8nD pic.twitter.com/J7p1fN1ecD— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 19, 2016
Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region said the plane crashed 250 meters away from the runway. He also added “by all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level”
The weather department had issued a storm warning in Rostov-on-Don on Friday.
The plane’s flight path, as tracked by Flight Radar 24, showed the plane made a number of turns near the Rostov-on-Don airport prior to the final landing.
The airport will remain closed until Sunday. At least six flights were delayed, two of which were supposed to leave for St. Petersburg while the others were due to arrive in Moscow. The inbound flights are getting rerouted to Krasnodar.
Flydubai, an Emirati budget airline with a new fleet of planes that started flying in mid-2009, said: “We are investigating further details and will publish an update once more information is available.”
Nationalities of victims from the passengers of Fly Dubai plane in Russia include:
44 Russians
8 from Ukraine
2 from India
1 from Uzbekistan— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 19, 2016
A day of mourning will be declared in the Rostov region, regional governor Vasily Golubev said.
“Tomorrow (Sunday) will be declared a day of mourning. The government will render assistance to relatives of those killed,” Golubev said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe.
“An operative and investigative group of the Southern Transport Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has departed for the site of the accident,” the department said.
Statement of FlyDubai
Following our earlier statements more information is now available relating to flydubai flight FZ981.
flydubai very much regrets to confirm that the accident involving flight number FZ981 at Rostov-on-Don earlier today has resulted in 55 passenger fatalities including 33 women, 18 men and 4 children. The nationalities of the deceased passengers include 44 Russians, 8 Ukrainians, 2 Indians and 1 Uzbekistani.
We are currently contacting relatives of the passengers and crew who were on board and we are offering any help we can to those affected.
Chief Executive Officer Ghaith Al Ghaith, with the support of the full management team, is leading our response to the accident. At this stage the focus of our efforts is on establishing the facts around the incident and providing all possible support to the authorities.
Our emergency response team are now en-route to Rostov-on-Don.
The aircraft involved was a Next-Generation Boeing 737-800.
Social Media update
https://www.facebook.com/flydubai/videos/1111586652225758/
Statement by flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith regarding FZ981Statement by flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith regarding FZ981 from Dubai to Rostov-on-Don 19 March 2016
Posted by flydubai on Friday, March 18, 2016
2 Comments
It is imperative that planes should carry enough fuel to make it to the next airport in case of fouled weather. No exceptions.
So it wasn’t all bad news. Now those two Indians will not take jobs from Americans.