[News] Top KHL squad killed in passenger plane crash in Russia

[Masa]

Top KHL squad killed in passenger plane crash in Russia

At least 43 people have died in a Yakovlev Yak-42 passenger plane crash near the city of Yaroslavl in Central Russia. The majority of victims were members of the local ice hockey team Lokomotiv.

Of the 45 people on board, only two survived, reports RT corresponded Anissa Naouai at the scene of the tragedy.

The plane went down and caught fire shortly after taking to the air. Preliminary reports say it had insufficient lift and hit a beacon tower. An air traffic controller told Itar-Tass, that the aircraft was some 50 to 60 meters above the ground when it tilted to the left and crashed.

The crash site is some 2,500 meters from the runway. The incident happened just next to the Volga River and some fragments of the aircraft and bodies of the victims fell into the water. So far 29 bodies have been recovered from the site, local rescue services say.

HK Lokomotiv confirmed that its entire 37-strong main squad was on board the Yak-42. They were traveling to the Belarusian capital Minsk. Several of the victims were foreign players for the club. The squad included players from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden.

The two survivors are in a serious condition and have been taken to hospital. One of them is team member Aleksandr Galimov. The other is a flight engineer, preliminary reports say.

“Galimov has burns to 80 per cent of his body, the crew member has broken bones and lacerations in addition to massive burns,” Dr. Viktor Berezing from the hospital’s burn trauma department told Interfax.

It is the first-ever fatal crash involving a sports team in modern Russia. Soviet Union’s worst incident of this kind was the 1979 mid-air collision of two Tupolev Tu-134s in Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukraine. Seventeen players and staff of the then-Soviet top-division Pakhtakor Football Club team died in the crash.

The Yaroslavl HC Lokomotiv were Russian Champions in 1997, 2002 and 2003. The squad was to play a match against Mink HC Dinamo on Thursday.

The heads of the KHL are currently in an urgent meeting to discuss the measures to be taken following the tragic crash and death of the Yaroslavl team. The Salavat Ulaev versus Atlant match, which is the opening battle of the league season, was cancelled by the KHL.

President Dmitry Medvedev is to visit the crash site on Thursday. He offered his condolences to the relatives of the victims and to fans of the club over the tragedy.

Visitors of the International Political Forum, who are visiting Yaroslavl at the moment, held a minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of the crash. The Russian Hockey Federation voiced its condolences to the Lokomotiv club, the families of the victims and the entire ice hockey community.

Hockey fans in Moscow are gathering in Red Square near the Kremlin to honor the deceased Lokomotiv players and the other victims of the crash. In Minsk, people are laying flowers in front of the stadium where the team was scheduled to play on Thursday. Yaroslavl fans are meeting at one of the city’s squares to mark the loss of their team.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation into the incident and sent a team of forensic experts from Moscow to Yaroslavl, according to the spokesman for the committee, Vladimir Markin.

The Interstate Aviation Committee, a regional regulating body, has launched its own probe into the cause of the crash.

Prime Minister Putin ordered Transport Minister Igor Levitin to organize the initial part of the investigation at the scene.

https://rt.com/news/passenger-plane-russia-reports-005/

Pavol Demitra among 43 killed in Russian plane crash

A Russian jet carrying a local hockey team crashed Wednesday while taking off in western Russia, killing 43 people and leaving two others critically injured, officials said.

Former NHL star Pavol Demitra's agent, Matt Keator, confirmed his client was one of the players killed in the crash.

"This is just awful," Keator said. "He was such a popular guy with everyone he has ever played with."

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42 plane crashed in sunny weather immediately after leaving an airport near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River about 240 kilometres northeast of Moscow.

It said the plane was carrying the Lokomotiv ice hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where it was to play Thursday against Dinamo Minsk in the opening game of the season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The ministry was carrying 45 people, including 37 passengers and eight crew, and two people survived the crash.

It wasn't immediately clear which players were on board the Yak-42, and no one answered the phone at Lokomotive's press office Wednesday morning. Officials said player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.

The ministry said the plane was carrying the Lokomotiv hockey team from Yaroslavl.

The KHL is an international club league that pits together teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is a leading force in Russian hockey and came third in the KHL last year. It's coached by Canadian Brad McCrimmon and includes several international stars in its ranks, such as Stefan Liv of Sweden and Czech Republic players Josef Vaicek and Jan Marek. Lokomotiv was a three-time Russian League champion in 1997, 2002 and 2003 and took the bronze last season.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin immediately sent the nation's transport minister to the site, 10 miles (15 kilometers) east of Yaroslavl.

The plane that crashed was relatively new, built in 1993, and belonged to a small Yak Service company.

The Russian team also featured several top European players and former NHL stars, including Slovakian forward and national team captain Pavol Demitra, who played in the NHL for the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks.

The team's coach, Brad McCrimmon, is a native of Saskatchewan. He played defence for six NHL teams — Boston, Philadelphia, Calgary, Detroit, Hartford and Phoenix from 1979-80 to 1996-97.

He played 1,222 regular season games in the NHL, collecting 81 goals, 322 assists and 1,416 penalty minutes.

Mr. McCrimmon was an assistant coach with the New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and Detroit Red Wings. He also served as head coach of the Western Hockey League's Saskatoon Blades.

Other top names include forward Josef Vasicek of the Czech Republic, Czech defenseman Karel Rachunek, Russian defensemen Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins, and Swedish goalie Stefan Liv.

Swarms of police and rescue crews rushed to Tunoshna, a picturesque village with a blue-domed church on the banks of the Volga River.

One resident, Irina Pryakhova, saw the plane going down.

“It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong,” she said. “It went down behind the trees and there was a bang and a plume of smoke.”

She said rescuers pulled victims' bodies out of the Volga River. “I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on,” Pryakhova said.

A cup match between hockey teams Salavat Yulaev and Atlant in the central Russian city of Ufa was called off midway after news of the crash was announced by Konintental Hockey League head Alexander Medvedev.

Russian television broadcast images of an empty arena in Ufa as grief-stricken fans abandoned the stadium.

“We will do our best to ensure that hockey in Yaroslavl does not die, and that it continues to live for the people that were on that plane,” said Russian Ice Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretyak.

President Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to take aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year. The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980 and about 100 are still in service with Russian carriers.

In June, another Russian passenger jet crashed in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk, killing 47 people. The crash of that Tu-134 plane has been blamed on pilot error.

The team’s 25-player roster includes the following players who were born in Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden:

• Anikeyenko, Vitaly

• Balandin, Mikhail

• Vasyunov, Alexander

• Vasicek, Josef

• Vyukhin, Alexander

• Galimov, Alexander

• Demitra, Pavol

• Ditrih, Robert

• Kalimulin, Marat

• Kalyanin, Alexander

• Kiryukhin, Andrei

• Klyukin, Nikita

• Liv, Stefan

• Marek, Jan

• Ostapchuk, Sergei

• Rachunek, Karel

• Saley, Ruslan

• Skrastinsh, Karlis

• Snurnitsyn, Pavel

• Sobchenko, Daniil

• Tkachenko, Ivan

• Trakhanov, Pavel

• Churilov, Gennady

• Shuvalov, Maksim

• Yarchuk, Artyom

Russian-born defensive player Urychev Yury was listed as injured on the team’s most recent roster on the KHL official website.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/former-nhl-star-pavol-demitra-among-43-killed-in-russian-plane-crash/article2156297/

R.I.P.

[daigong]

Holy.....just speecheless.

NHL ... Hockey lost this ..fuck. offseason.

[OpsMonkey]

This off season does indeed suck. So much tragedy.

[JFC]

Tragic can't even begin to describe the loss of life brought on by this. It's a dark day for the hockey world, and for the world in general.

R.I.P. to all.

[kuro808]

I read this and my heart goes their families, terrible sports tragedy for anybody, even for a beginner in the sport fanship, you feel sadden by this

[daigong]

Ruslan Salei too? SHIT.


Demitra obviously the biggest star - to lose a whole team is just unfathomable


 Brad McCrimmon be one of those grittiest players. The react around the NHL is just numbing.

[kaede]

My thoughts and condolences go out to everyone involved into this horrible tragedy.
RIP. Sad, sad day.

[Saburo]

Read an absolutely brutal piece on a person whose contact with the KHL tragedy was sharp and affecting: http://achicksperspective.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/reality-check/

[Saburo]

Puck Daddy at Yahoo has amazing video of a memorial for the fallen team: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Dynamo-Minsk-8217-s-hockey-funeral-for-L?urn=nhl-wp12157

[daigong]

The amazing thing, where the show must go on, to keep on pushing forward - Lokomotiv gonna be getting to build a team of 3 players volunteered by each squad.

Tributes all across Russia:

[JeremyJay22]

Completely shocking, was so surprised when my dad told me about this yesterday. Condolences to everyone involved. RIP.

[daigong]

Still shocking just to think back....a year later.



"On the one-year anniversary of the Lokomotiv plane crash tragedy, our thoughts and prayers remain with the victims and their families. Oilers defenceman Nick Schultz reflects on the Lokomotiv tragedy, which claimed the life of his former Wild teammate Pavol Demitra > http://ow.ly/dylgu "

via Edmonton Oilers FB

I heard on the radio that the pilot had like weren't even qualified to fly, had fraud license or some shit like WTF Russian Air Authorities.