MOSCOW: A Russian passenger jet with only crew on board crash landed in forest near Moscow s Domodedovo International Airport on Monday, injuring all eight crew members, three seriously, officials said.
The Tu-204 plane arriving from the Egyptian resort of Hurghada landed on its belly at 23:34 GMT around 1,500 meters short of the runway, said the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General s Office.
As a result, eight crew members received body injuries of various degrees of severity, the investigative committee said in statement. Three of them are in serious condition.
The country s emergency situations ministry said the plane had been destroyed in the crash and tons of fuel spilled in the area.
A spokesman for Domodedovo airport told AFP the plane had previously been involved in an emergency landing.
The investigative committee said it had started a probe into the crash of the plane belonging to Avia Star Tour, a little-known travel company.
Russian aviation has a patchy safety record that experts blame on faults in crew training, the country s ageing fleet of passenger jets and poor maintenance.
Russian television showed emergency vehicles at the site of the crash in snow-covered woodland. -AFP
