Dozens killed as Russia plane carrying hockey team crashes
Moscow (CNN) -- A plane carrying Russian, German, Swedish and former NHL hockey players crashed as it took off Wednesday afternoon from Russia's Yaroslavl airport, killing at least 43 people, Russian emergency officials said.
The Yak-42 aircraft was taking players for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl -- one of Russia's leading ice hockey teams -- to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, the Russian aviation authority told CNN.
Only two of the 45 people aboard the plane, eight of them crew members, survived, a Russian Emergency Situations Ministry representative said. Eleven of the people on the aircraft were foreigners, the ministry said.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that the two survivors were Russian forward Alexander Galimov and flight crew member Alexander Sizov, both of whom were being treated in intensive care.
The team was scheduled to play a match in the new Kontinental Hockey League, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti said.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl had a number of players with ties to the National Hockey League, according to the U.S. National Hockey League's official website, NHL.com.
The NHL cited Russia's Sov Sport website as confirming that the entire main roster of the team Lokomotiv was on the plane, along with four players from the youth team.
Lokomotiv's head coach, Brad McCrimmon, 52, who was born in Canada, previously played in the NHL and served as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, NHL.com said.
Others who played in the NHL include Karel Rachunek, a 32-year-old Czech native; Ruslan Salei, 36, from Belarus; Karlis Skrastins, 37, from Latvia; Pavol Demitra, 36, from Slovakia, and
Josef Vasicek, 30, from the Czech Republic.
Demitra was a former Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks center, RIA Novosti reported, while fellow center Vasicek was formerly with the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes. Salei previously played for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Colorado Avalanche and the Red Wings.
Twenty-nine bodies have been recovered from the crash site so far, a Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman told CNN. He added that the plane crashed on the banks of the Volga River, with parts of the plane falling to the ground and other parts into the river.
The Russian Federal Aviation Agency said earlier a number of people had survived the crash, but their condition was critical.
A national championship ice hockey match between Salavat Yulayev and Atlant was halted in the city of Ufa after reports of the crash.
Players from both teams and spectators observed a moment of silence before leaving the stadium. Many in the audience were crying, Russian state TV footage showed.
The president of the Russian national hockey league, Alexander Medvedev, took the microphone at the stadium to say representatives from both clubs had asked for the match to be called off because they had ties to many of those at Lokomotiv.
He said: "I would like to assure you that we'll do everything we can to make sure that the first-class ice hockey in Yaroslavl will continue and that the Lokomotiv club will remain as one of the strongest clubs in our Kontinental Hockey League."
An aviation agency spokesman, Sergei Izvolsky, told CNN the crash occurred around 4 p.m. (8 a.m. ET) during takeoff because the plane couldn't reach a safe altitude fast enough.
The aircraft collided with the antenna of the airport beacon, fell to the ground and broke into several pieces and caught fire, Izvolsky said.
It was a charter flight with a plane operated by Yak-Service Airlines, he said. Yaroslavl is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of Moscow.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the country's Investigative Committee and other law enforcement agencies to probe the crash.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also asked Transport Minister Igor Levitin to go to the scene to organize efforts to examine the cause of the crash, Putin's press office reported.
The crash came as an international political forum opened in Yaroslavl, with participants expected to include Dmitry Medvedev, the prime ministers of France, Spain and Italy and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Medvedev plans to visit the crash scene to pay tribute to the victims before attending the forum on Thursday, the Kremlin press office said Wednesday.
One of the dead was also Swedish goalkeeper Stefan Liv, who won gold in Turin Olympics 2006 and also the World Championships in the same year. Ruslan Salei wasn't in the plane, because he was waiting for the team in Minsk (since Belarus is his home country)
