Russian Jet Crashes After Moscow Take-Off

A Russian passenger plane has crashed after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport with 71 people on board.

The Saratov Airlines An-148 jet was en route to the city of Orsk in the Ural mountains, near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, when it went down.

All those on board are thought to have died, officials told Russian media.

The jet vanished minutes after take-off and reportedly crashed near the town of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow.

Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 tweets that the aircraft was descending at 1,000m (3,300ft) per minute (60km/h, 38mph) five minutes after taking off.

Russian airlines have suffered two major plane crashes in recent years:

What do we know about Saratov Airlines?

Saratov Airlines is based in Saratov, 840km south-east of Moscow.

In 2015 it was banned from operating international flights when surprise inspectors found someone other than the flight crew was in the cockpit.

The airline appealed against the ban and changed its policy before resuming international charter flights in 2016.

It flies mainly between Russian cities but also has destinations in Armenia and Georgia.

Source: BBC