Soviet Jet, 82 on Board, Crashes in East Berlin

A Soviet jetliner carrying 82 people crashed while approaching East Berlin today, East Germany’s state-run news agency reported. It said 17 survivors were pulled from the wreckage and the number of dead was not known.

The official news agency ADN said 73 passengers and nine crew members were aboard the Aeroflot TU-134 plane on the flight from the Soviet city of Minsk.

“The number of those dead is not yet known. Up to now, the rescue crews have carried out 17 passengers alive,” ADN said.

West German television broadcast film of the scene of the crash, showing firemen hosing down the twisted, smoking wreckage of the jet. The plane appeared to have been destroyed.

Fire trucks and emergency vehicles were at the scene of the crash, in Bohnsdorf township outside East Berlin, ADN said.

10 Dead in Early Report

An early report on East Germany’s state-run television said at least 10 people died in the crash and many others were injured.

ADN said the plane crashed as the jet was descending to land at East Berlin’s Schoenefeld Airport.

The news agency said a special commission under the leadership of Transport Minister Otto Arndt has been set up to investigate the crash.

The official Soviet press agency Tass reported the plane crash in a one-paragraph dispatch datelined Berlin.