Cornwall ON – A Russian Yak 42 plunged into the Volga River killing 40 of 42 souls on board, most of which were on the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team which boasted such former NHL’ers as Pavol Demitra, Ruslan
Salei, Karlis Skrastins, and new coach and former Detroit Red Wing assistant Brad McCrimmon.
The crash occured on the first day of the KHL season and details are still coming out of Russia. We do know that the plane was a relatively new plane put into service in 1993 as opposed to some that are still in service that were built in the 80’s.
TV Report of Crash
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dhCa6oWiI4
The hockey world is stunned with reports all over various news sites like TSN and Hockey Buzz.
We will update this story as more news is released. Condolences to the KHL and hockey community.
Poor quality of aviation fuel could be one of possible reasons for why the Yak-42 plane crashed in Central Russia on Wednesday, killing more than 40 people, a source in the aviation industry said.
“The aircraft failed to gain the required engine takeoff speed and fell from a low height on a Volga riverbank. Refueling the plane with low-quality fuel is seen as a priority reason for the engine malfunction,” the source said on the condition of anonymity.
The plane carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team crashed moments after take-off from Yaroslavl airport at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (noon GMT), bursting into flames as it hit the ground. Witnesses spoke of hearing two “loud bangs” before the accident.
According to the Russian emergencies ministry, the plane had 45 people on board – 37 passengers and eight crew members. Two people – hockey player Alexander Galimov and flight attendant Alexander Sizov – survived the crash and are currently in hospital in critical condition.
The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder of the ill-fated plane are yet to be recovered.