Sad news coming out of Russia. A passenger plane carrying 61 individuals, including 55 passengers and 6 crew members, crashed and then exploded while making an attempt to land early Saturday morning, BuzzFeedreports.
The Boeing 737 jet was reportedly traveling Dubai when, according to Russia’s Southern Regional Emergency Center, it crashed around 3:50 a.m. in the Rostov-on-Don region, which is about 670 miles south of Moscow. Russian media agency RIA confirms that everyone on board was killed. "A Boeing 737 crashed as it was coming into land. There were 61 people on board. They are all dead," a spokesman for local officials said.
RIA added that there was an "explosion," which corroborates a statement made by emergencies ministry spokesperson Marina Kostioukova who said, "The Boeing 737 on the Dubai to Rostov-on-Don route caught fire (after crashing).” It reportedly took an hour to control the fire from the explosive crash, which was caught on video.
According to AFP, the flight was operated by FlyDubai, who announced in a Facebook post that they were looking into the incident. "We are aware of an incident involving our flight FZ981 from Dubai to Rostov-on-Don. We are investigating further details and will publish an update once more information is available," it read.
