13 killed after Russian plane catches fire midair

13 killed after Russian plane catches fire midair

At least 13 people on board a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane were killed when it caught fire midair and made an emergency landing at a Moscow airport on Sunday.

Television footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet-100 making an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport with much of the rear part of the plane engulfed in flames. Harrowing video showed passengers leaping from the front of the burning plane onto an inflatable slide and staggering across tarmac and grass.

Medical workers told the TASS news agency at least 13 people had been killed and others remained unaccounted for. Two children were among the dead, Russian investigators said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Seventy-eight on board

News agencies said the Sukhoi aircraft, which had been flying from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk before turning back, was carrying 73 passengers and five crew members.

Russian investigators said they were looking into whether the pilots had breached air safety rules.-Al Jazeera