User:Xiilanceriix/rusair flight 243

RusAir Flight 243 was a scheduled RusAir flight, operating as a RusLine service, between Domodedovo International Airport and Petrozavodsk Airport, operated by a Tupolev Tu-134, registry RA-65691, that crashed on approach to Petrozavodsk on the evening of 20 June 2011, killing 44 people and injuring eight more.

Incident
The aircraft crashed onto a highway while on final approach to Petrozavodsk Airport, about 1200 m short of the runway. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, though there was reportedly poor weather at the time, including heavy fog, and the aircraft had apparently attempted to land on the highway before crashing. ITAR-TASS reported that a law enforcement official in the area said that the aircraft suffered mechanical problems while approching the airport, possibly leading to the decision to land on the road. According to the office of the emergency ministry in Karelia, the republic the incident occurred in, radio contact with the plane had been lost at 23:40 local time (19:40 Zulu Time), shortly before the aircraft crashed.

Casualties
There were 43 passengers and nine crewmembers on board the aircraft, a total of 52, of which 44 were killed and the remaining eight injured, one critically.

Aftermath
By around 01:00 on 21 June, the fire at the crash site had been extinguished, and both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Those injured were initially sent to local hospitals, but were planned to be later transported to Moscow via an Ilyushin Il-76 with doctors and psychologists on board.

According to an official at Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations, an investigation into the incident was begun shortly after the crash.