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Contact photographer Alexander Martynov
What: Kolavia (Kogalymavia) Tupolev TU-154B2 from Surgut to Moscow Domodedovo (Russia)
Where: Surgut
When: Jan 1st 2011
Who: 116 passengers and 8 crew
Why: While preparing for takeoff, an engine caught fire; it started burning while taxiing on the runway, and the fire spread to the fuselage.
Passengers were evacuated in a cloud of thick black smoke, while panic ensued.
The plane completely burned on the runway. After the evacuation, there was an explosion. Emergency services could not put out the fire. One burned passenger’s body was found.
Initially reports were that one passenger was killed, two were burned, 32 were injured. 34 were hospitalized, 4 of whom in critical condition. On the latest update, the number of fatalities was increased to 3.
27 were hospitalized with problems due to poisoning due to combustion products. Two men had moderate leg injuries, and a child with carbon monoxide poisoning is in intensive care. The Russian pop group Na-Na was aboard and lost their possessions in the fire.
A criminal probe had been opened into a possible violation of air transport security rules.
