50 dead in Russian crash

A Tatarstan Boeing 737-500 operating Ak Bars Aero flight U9-363 from Moscow to Kazan in Russia has crashed on landing killing all 44 passengers and 6 crew. The 737-500 was on its second approach to land at 7.25pm Sunday November 17 and crashed in a fireball. According to Russia's Ministry of Emergency all passengers and crew were killed. The Airport of Kazan was closed after the accident. It has two parallel runways with a Category II ILS approach. Russian President Vladimir Putin "expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims in this horrible disaster" and ordered a government commission be set up to investigate the cause, said Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the news agency Interfax. The Investigative Committee said an inquiry had been opened to determine whether there had been "violation of aviation security rules" and added that several inspectors had been sent to the scene of the crash. AAP said that pilot error was one of three preliminary lines of inquiry, along with weather conditions and technical failure, said Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin, quoted by Interfax. Kazan is the capital city of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. The airline had not done the very important International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). Airlines that have completed IOSA have a safety record twice that of airlines that have not done the audit. Air Travel in Russia has improved significantly in recent years with no hull losses in 2012 down from 8.6 per one million flights in 2006. However in 2013 the country suffered 2.94 losses. This compares to the industry average of 0.30. The 737-500 that crashed first flew in 1990 and is owned by leasing company AWAS. It has had six operators. According to Aviation Safety Network it was involved in a landing accident in Brazil in 2001 which severely damaged its undercarriage.