120 confirmed dead in Russian plane crash

About 120 bodies have been found from a Russian plane crash at a Siberian airport early Sunday, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

"As of 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (0500 GMT), we have recovered 120 bodies, while 53 people are in hospital," ministry spokeswoman Natalya Lukash said.

Six people are in a critical condition, including a 10-year-old child, the medical emergencies center in Irkutsk was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying.

According to the Interior Ministry, an A-310 jet of the Russian airline Sibir carrying 192 passengers and eight crew members veered off the runway and hit a building during landing at the Irkutsk airport at 03:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Saturday).

After collision with the building, the jet burst into flames.

The jet arrived in Irkutsk from Moscow's Domodedovo airport. Many of the passengers aboard were children going for vacation on Russia's famous Lake Baikal near Irkutsk.

Russian television pictures showed the wreckage of the jet in between several lockup garages. Only the airplane's tail section with the white-on -blue logo of Sibir airlines was still intact.

Yuri Paranichev, the region's acting governor, said the aircraft's two black boxes had been recovered and were being deciphered, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Before flying from Moscow to Irkutsk, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said that the plane's pilots contacted air traffic controllers during the landing and said they had landed successfully, but radio contact suddenly broke off, Russian news agencies reported.

Levitin was also quoted as saying that the runway was wet after rain.

Relatives of the passengers were expected to arrive at Moscow's Domodedovo airport later Sunday.

The disaster is the fourth air crash in Irkutsk in the past 12 years.

Source: Xinhua