Investigators in Russia have formally identified the regional jet which crashed on take-off from Moscow Vnukovo Airport yesterday as a corporate Bombardier CRJ100 Special Edition as they start investigations into the cause.

Two crew members and a third person on board the aircraft (registered N168CK) were hospitalised after the accident, in which the jet overturned, losing its starboard wing before coming to rest inverted with its undercarriage still deployed (pcitured below).

Having left the Vnukovo-3 general aviation terminal the jet was departing from runway 06 in poor weather. Meteorological data indicates snow, showers and a crosswind at the time. The jet was bound for Berlin at around 16:36, says Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), the authority overseeing the investigation.

Russia’s emergency ministry says that the aircraft suffered a sudden engine fire during the take-off roll, adding: “The aircraft travelled beyond the limits of the runway, overturned and was destroyed.”

Two of the occupants were taken to a municipal hospital while the third was transported to a separate institute.

It remains unclear which organisation was operating the aircraft. The transport ministry states that it is owned by a division of Wells Fargo bank, and had arrived from Geneva on 4 February.

 

Moscow CRJ100SE crash W445
©  Empics /AP Photo/ Channel One-Russian Television

Channel One showed footage of Russian rescue workers and officials seen at a twin-engine Bombardier CRJ100SE in heavy snowfall after a crash at Vnukovo airport in Moscow.

Source: FlightGlobal.com