The plane was charted by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, one of the best known hockey teams in the Russian competition. Lokomotiv's chartered Yak-42 jet, which had a crew of eight and carried 37 passengers, including natives of Canada, Latvia, Belarus, Sweden, Slovakia and the Czech Republic,
Two people, Lokomotiv winger Alexander Galimov and flight attendant Alexander Sizov, survived the crash and were hospitalized with severe burns.
This news highlights the current unsafe environment in Russian aviation. While a lot of passenger companies have changed their flightequipment to western standards (introducing Airbus and Boeing in the fleet), a large number of old and ill-maintained soviet-built airplanes remain in service. The Tupolev 154 was already grounded after a few crashes and incidents in quick succession (one killing the Polish president), and also other types have had to endure criticism or an outright ban. President Medvedev is pushing to modernize the Russian air industry and make it safer along with it.
Given the media-coverage of this air disaster, reminiscent of when a plane carrying the Manchester United football team crashed, there is certainly going to be a quick and strict response.
For now, the nation -big on ice hockey- grieves the Yaroslavl Hockey team, one of the most successful in the competition.
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