Plane Crash Kills 71 In Russia

All 65 passengers and six crew were killed when the Saratov Airlines jet went down minutes after taking off from Domodedovo airport on Sunday, CNN reports.

The passengers included three children, ages 5, 13 and 17, state news agency RIA reported.

The Russian aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said the flight departed at 2:21 p.m. from Domodedovo Airport.

The Antonov AN-148, a small regional jet, was headed to the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, about 1,000 miles south-east of Moscow, near the border with Kazakhstan.

“Several minutes after takeoff, radio connection with the crew disappeared, the plane’s mark disappeared from radars,” the Emergency Situations Ministry revealed.

The crew of the Saratov Airlines flight that crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow, didn’t report any problems before the plane crashed into snowy terrain, killing all 71 people on board, state-run media said.

Officials say they are considering weather conditions, human error and technical failure as possible causes, But they did not mention the possibility of terrorism.

Rescuers have recovered 209 fragments of bodies at the site and both flight recorders from the plane were in the hands of investigators on Monday.

The onboard voice recorder for cockpit conversations was found Monday in “satisfactory condition,” an emergency representative at the crash site told RIA.