Plane crashes in Russia 25 August 2004
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MOSCOW: A plane carrying 62 people crashed in Russia's Tula region south of Moscow on Tuesday, Itar-Tass reported.
The Tu-154 aircraft, with 54 passengers and eight crew on board, crashed near the village of Buchalki, some 180km south of Moscow, the agency said, quoting a local civil defence and emergencies official.
In a separate report, Interfax news agency said air controllers lost contact with a Tu-154 taking 44 passengers from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
It quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying contact stopped at 7am (NZ time) when it should have been 140km from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
It was not immediately clear if this was the plane that crashed near Tula, more than 800km northeast of Rostov.
Tupolev's Tu-154 jet remains the standard medium-range airliner on domestic flights in Russia, according to aviation websites. Some 48m in length, it can carry up to 180 passengers for up to 4000km.