Wednesday, September 8, 2010

System failure plane makes 'miracle' landing in Russia

Officials investigate the damaged plane

Russian pilots have safely landed a passenger plane in Siberia after the aircraft lost power at 10,600m (34,800ft).

None of the 81 passengers and crew was injured in the emergency landing on a disused military airstrip on Tuesday, Russian officials said.

There was only minimal damage to the plane, they added.

Russian blogs and social networking sites celebrated the incident as a "miracle" and the pilots as "heroes".

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The plane, a Tupolev-154, was en route from the Siberian city of Polyarny to Moscow when it lost power.

With the aircraft's fuel pump, navigation equipment and radio paralysed, the pilots glided the plane to a lower altitude and landed it on an airfield near the village of Izhma in the Komi region, about 1,500 km (930 miles) from Moscow.

The Tupolev overshot the end of the tarmac by about 200m (656ft) before coming to a stop in a bog, Russia's general prosecutor said in a statement.

The 72 passengers and nine crew left the plane shocked but unhurt, the statement added.

Russian media reported that all passengers had been flown to Moscow on another plane, with the exception of a couple who preferred to go by train.

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