Passenger jet cracks during emergency landing in Russia, killing 5

Five people were killed and 51 injured Saturday in the crash landing of a Russian airliner in the city of Samara, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Spokesman Viktor Beltsov described the accident as a "hard landing" of a Tu-134. The NTV television channel said the plane landed on its fuselage after the landing gear failed to come down, the AP said.

Another ministry spokesperson, Irina Andrianova, said the plane belonged to the Russian airline UTAir, and that there were 57 people aboard. She had no further details about how the accident occurred, but said there was no fire after the crash.

Samara is about 900 kilometers (550 miles) southeast of Moscow.