A passenger jet circled a southern Russian airport in high winds and poor visibility before making a second, fatal attempt at landing Saturday, killing all 62 people aboard.
The flydubai Boeing 737 jet crashed at the Rostov-on-Don airport after traveling from Dubai, Russia’s Southern Regional Emergency Center said Saturday.
All those on board Flight FZ981 have died, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing an official at the emergency center.
Psychologists on scene
Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told media that the jet had been carrying 55 passengers and seven crew members when it crashed while reattempting to land. It was scheduled to touch down at 1:20 a.m. local time (6:20 p.m. ET), but went down at 3:50 a.m. (8:50 p.m. ET ), Puchkov said.
Rostov-on-Don airport had been closed and teams of medics and psychologists are on standby to give assistant to family members, he said.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations said it had deployed 80 rescuers to the site of the crash, which lay about 800 feet (243 meters) from the airport runway.
It said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash at this stage and that weather conditions were most-likely responsible.
The plane’s pilot had circled the airport, waiting for the weather to clear before making a second attempt to land, but the aircraft’s tail had clipped the runway, the ministry said.
State media reported winds of 97 kph (60 mph) at the time of the crash.
Thoughts and prayers
In a statement, flydubai confirmed that its plane had crashed on landing, resulting in fatalities.
“At this moment our thoughts and prayers are with our passengers and our crew who were on board the aircraft. We will do everything we can to help those who have been affected by this accident,” the airline said.
“We are putting our emergency response in place and we will be working closely with all the authorities involved. We will share as much information as possible just as soon as we can and we will provide updated information on a regular basis.”
Among the 55 passengers, 50 were Russian citizens, the Emergency Ministries said. Only one of the seven crew members was Russian.
Boeing issued a statement saying its thoughts were also with the crash victims and their families and friends.
“Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance upon the request of government agencies conducting the investigation,” it said.
Pilot disorientation?
CNN aviation expert Mary Schiavo said radar suggested the plane had flown three large, looping circles around the airport before it crashed.
“The poor visibility is probably the biggest clue,” Schiavo said. “But this runway was lighted, it had good lighting at one end and passable lighting at the other and it did have an instrument landing system,” she said.
“With the clue of bad weather and making at least three different circles trying to reorient to this runway it does look like pilot disorientation.”
Meantime, Aviation Safety Analyst David Soucie agreed with the ministry’s preliminary assessment that weather was likely to blame.
“It’s not likely it was a mechanical failure,” Soucie said. “It’s most-likely a weather-related incident.”