An Airbus A-310, carrying about 200 people including eight crew members, crashed on landing in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday. Most on board were feared killed.



The plane, operated by Russia’s second largest airline, Sibir, was on a flight from Russia to Irkutsk near Lake Baikal. It was traveling at terrific speed and hit a concrete barrier, bursting into flames. It took five emergency services over two hours to douse the flames.



The former Soviet airlines had a far from commendable record of crashes in the 1990s with the disintegration of the country’s carrier Aeroflot into hundreds of regional units. They were plagued by lack of money, old equipment and next to no regard for passengers’ safety. However there has been a turnaround for the better I with crashes due to equipment failure, or pilot error declining sharply.



Sibir’s ownership changed hands in 1998 following a financial mess. Western consultants’ help was sought and a young dynamic team took over to resurrect the remainder of Aeroflot’s Siberian wing. Two near-simultaneous crashes saw the airlines’ plans being dealt a serious blow. The mishaps were blamed on terrorist bombs in 2004.



Sibir was unlucky when in 2001 it lost a plane to a Ukranian missile fired during military exercises. All 78 passengers perished.



Image Credit: BBC



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