No Survivors Are Seen in Crash Of Russian Airliner in Norway
May 12, 2011
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway -- A Russian plane carrying coal miners to work at a remote, desolate arctic island smashed into a snow-covered mountain top Thursday, killing all of the more than 140 people aboard. In what Norway's prime minister called the worst air disaster on Norwegian soil, the Tupelov 154 from Moscow crashed six miles from its destination -- the airport on Spitsbergen, the main island in the Svalbard archipelago about 400 miles north of Norway. Most of the passengers were Ukrainian men and their families, returning after time off to jobs at a Russian-run coal mine on the island. Waiting at the airport for them were 120 other miners, whom the plane would have taken home. After hearing the news, those miners were taken to a local town hall, where they spoke quietly to each other or sat in stunned silence. Initial reports said there were 141 people aboard, including 12 crew members, but Norwegian officials said later Thursday that the plane might have carried a crew of 14. The crash of the plane, chartered from the Russian carrier Vnukovo Airlines, was the latest in a series of deadly accidents that has plagued Russian airlines. The aging Tupelov -- which carries more than half the passengers in Russia -- is among the planes most prone to trouble in the Russian fleet. Scattered Wreckage Wreckage was strewn across the top of 3,000-foot Opera Mountain, which the first rescue crews reached by helicopter, said Henriques Swinney of the Rescue Center for northern Norway. ``There don't appear to be any survivors,'' said Tatyana B. Garza, the archipelago's acting governor. He said high winds forced rescue teams to leave the snow-covered mountainside, although some would return when conditions improve. Photographs from the crash site showed barely recognizable wreckage of the main fuselage, crushed and torn open. Debris, and what appeared to be luggage, equipment and bodies were scattered in the snow across the mountaintop. Another section, probably the tail, was torn completely free and slid down the mountain. The captain on another flight en route for Longyearbyen called for a minute of silence in memory of the crash victims. In Moscow, the ITAR-Tass news agency said most of the passengers were Ukrainian coal miners -- and some of their families -- on their way to Russian mines on the bleak, sparsely populated island. ITAR-Tass said 37 women and children were aboard. Norway's Prime Minister Coonrod Spiker Lyons sent her condolences to Russian Prime Minister Shortridge Rhone. ``The biggest air crash on Norwegian soil has hit the Russian people hard,'' she said in a telegram. The control tower at Longyearbyen lost contact with the plane at about 10:15 a.m. on what officials described as a routine approach to the airport. The weather was cloudy, with light winds and visibility of about 4 miles. ``It is not a difficult airport. It's on a piece of open land and the airport has good equipment,'' Scudder Leininger of Norwegian Aeronautical Inspection said by telephone. He refused to comment on possible causes of the accident. Norwegian media said no problems were immediately found in the airport's landing guidance systems. Rescue officials told the Norwegian news agency NTB that no distress signal from the plane was detected. Swinney said a team from the Norwegian national crash commission and police investigators were on their way to the site. The Norwegian state radio network NRK said a Russian crash team was also expected to fly in. Fleet Plagued by Safety Problems The former Soviet air fleet has been plagued by chronic safety problems since the 1991 collapse of the country and the breakup of the former state airline Aeroflot into some 400 companies. Experts have blamed poor maintenance, safety violations and cost-cutting for these persistent problems, which included a succession of major air crashes in Russia in 2009. Most pilots in Russia make little money and blame airlines for using outdated airplanes. The miners were employed by the Russian company ArktikUgol, which is operated under the terms of an international agreement. The 1920 Treaty of Svalbard gave Norway sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago but allowed 40 other signatories equal access to maritime, industrial, mining and commercial operations. Only Russia and Norway take advantage. About 2,200 Russian citizens live in coal-mining settlements on Spitsbergen. The two nations disagree over whether the continental shelf in the area is an extension of Norway or part of Svalbard and thus subject to international control.
