The Guardian
MOSCOW — A Russian airliner broke into pieces after it slid off a runway and crashed on to a highway outside Moscow, killing four of the 12 crew on board and leaving chunks of fuselage on the icy road. The crash during peak holiday travel before Russia’s new year’s vacation, which runs from Sunday until 9 January, cast a spotlight on Russia’s poor air-safety record despite President Vladimir Putin’s calls to improve controls.
Television footage showed the Tupolev Tu-204 jet in pieces, with smoke billowing from the tail end and the cockpit broken off the front.
One witness told state channel Rossiya-24 he saw a man thrown from the plane as it rammed into the barrier of the highway outside Vnukovo airport, south-west of the capital, and another described pulling other people from the wreckage.
Full story: Russian plane crash leaves four crew members dead