Burning Soviet Jet Crashes in Forest; at Least 2 Killed

A Soviet jetliner with 82 passengers and crew aboard caught fire in the air and crashed into a thick forest in northeastern Russia, the weekly Nedelya newspaper said Friday. At least two people were killed.

The newspaper did not say when the Aeroflot plane crashed. It said the TU-134A twin-jet aircraft crashed in a heavy rainstorm about an hour after takeoff from the city of Syktyvkar, 750 miles northeast of Moscow.

Details of air crashes are rarely reported in the Soviet media and Soviet officials maintain Aeroflot has a better safety record than most Western airlines.

Holiday Crowd

The flight originated in the far northern lumber town of Vorkuta and was filled with vacationers heading for Moscow, the report said. The plane had stopped at Syktyvkar for refueling.

Killed in the crash were the plane’s navigator and flight engineer, the newspaper said. The pilot was badly injured.

“There were also some victims among the passengers,” the newspaper said, but did not specify if the “victims” were dead or injured.

Nedelya said a fire of unknown origin broke out in the cargo hold while the jet was cruising at 21,000 feet, pouring thick smoke into the cabin and threatening to suffocate the passengers and crew.

The newspaper said passengers began to panic as smoke seeped into the cabin. Some passed out. The fire became so intense that plastic and metal inside the cabin began to melt and the crew decided they would not be able to reach the airport alive, the newspaper said.