At least 41 dead in Moscow plane fire

A passenger plane of the model Sukhoi Superjet 100 caught fire when it crashed on Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday evening.

At least 41 people have died, according to the news agency Interfax.

A surveillance film shows how the aircraft bounces on the runway before it catches on fire.

Flight SU1492 took off from Moscow on the way to Murmansk, but ended up in an emergency and returned to Sheremetyevo. Due to severe weather conditions, the plane could only land at the second attempt.

At the landing at 5.30 pm Central European Time the plane caught fire, according to the Russian news agency Tass.

"The entire plane was on fire. Passengers jumped out on the runway," a source told Tass.

A video shows how passengers jump out via an inflatable ramp in the front of the plane while the rear burns.

A passenger on the plane, Pjotr ​​Jegorov, describes the event in the newspaper Komsomolskaja Pravda:

"After takeoff the plane was struck by lightning. Then we started to return tp base. The landing was very rough. We almost fainted, that´s how scared we were. The plane bounced like a grasshopper and caught fire".

The fire started when the undercarriage and one engine  hit in the ground.

The aircraft belongs to the airline Aeroflot. On board were 73 passengers and five crew members.

Hospital sources first stated to the news agency Tass that at least 13 people died. Later in the evening, Interfax, referring to the Accident Investigation Board, stated that the death toll had risen to 41.

A video from within the plane was published during the evening by RT. The passenger filming was sitting by the window and filmed the fire in the engine outside. At the same time, screams and panic are heard in the background.

Another film, according to RT taken by a surveillance camera at the airport, shows how the aircraft comes in for a high speed landing and bounces up in the air after the first ground contact. A few seconds later, the aircraft touches the ground again, whereupon the chassi and one engine are broken off and the fire breaks out.

Half the airplane was consumed by the fire following the crash. All traffic to and from Sheremetyevo was shut down in connection with the accident, but could later be resumed to a limited extent.

The damaged aircraft was only two years old and underwent planned service as late as April 2019.

The families of the deceased will receive up to 2,025,000 rubles (around 30 000 Euros) in compensation from the Alliance Insurance Association, according to a statement.