Rescue works resumed at Il-86 crash site

Rescue works were resumed on Monday outside Sheremetyevo airport where the Il-86 airliner had crashed. The works were halted on Sunday night because there was no hope to find anyone alive among the debris.

A Joint Commission investigating air accidents has started working in a headquarters set up at Sheremetyevo airport. Experts will analyse all data concerning the crash, as well as decipher information obtained by on-board and land control equipment and speech recorders.

Preliminary conclusions concerning the cause of the crash will be officially made public only when an investigation launched by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has been completed.

On Sunday at 15.20 Moscow time, an Il-86 airliner fell down from a 200-metre altitude in the Khimki district /the Moscow region/ 500-700 metres away from a runway of Sheremetyevo airport. When having crashed into the ground, the aircraft started burning.

The airliner belonging to the Pulkovskiye airlines had completed a flight from Sochi was starting a homeward flight to St. Petersburg. Fourteen out of the sixteen people on-board the aircraft died. Two flight assistants were rushed to hospital with grave injuries. At 16.35 Moscow time, the fire on-board the crashed airliner was extinguished.

The Moscow Regional Prosecutor's Office has instituted criminal proceedings into the accident.