A FlyDubai Boeing 737-800 operating flight FZ981 from Dubai to Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia has crashed while aborting its second approach for landing in bad weather killing all 62 passengers and crew on board.
Air-traffic control, local emergency services and the airline have confirmed that the Boeing 737-800 jet crashed near the runway.
According to Aviation Herald the 737-800, registration A6-FDN had aborted the first approach to Rostov's runway 22 at 01:41L due to weather and entered a hold initially at 8,000 feet, after 30 minutes at that altitude the aircraft climbed to 15,000ft.
After about 2 hours of holding the pilots commenced another approach to Rostov's runway 22.
However at that time the winds were gusting 42 knots (78km/hr),
According to Aviation-Safety.net ADS-B data recorded by Flightradar24 show the aircraft descending to an altitude of 1550 feet when it began to climb again at 3nm (5,6 km) short of the runway.
It reached about 3975 feet until the aircraft entered a steep descent before impacting airport terrain.
However the Rostov branch of the Emergencies Ministry told media that the aircraft's wing touched the runway, causing the aircraft to break apart and burst into flames.
The 737 had sufficient fuel for another 2 hours of flight and could have easily diverted to another airport as an Aeroflot flight had done earlier.
FlyDubai is a Dubai based low cost airline formed in 2009 that operates to 95 destinations with 50 aircraft.
Up to today's crash it had a perfect safety record.
CCTV camera footage posted on YouTube claims to have captured the moment of the explosion as the aircraft impacted the ground.
See the video here:
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