WORLD IN BRIEF : SOVIET UNION : Troop Plane Crashes Into Sea; 57 Dead

A Soviet military transport plane crashed in the Caspian Sea, killing all 50 paratroopers and seven crew members aboard, after a fire broke out in an engine, state-run news media reported. The Ilyushin 76 aircraft was apparently carrying the troops to quell unrest in the southern republic of Azerbaijan, which is locked in a dispute with Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The government newspaper Izvestia quoted an air force spokesman as saying that fire broke out three minutes after the plane took off from a military airfield. Unable to put out the blaze, the pilot turned back. “But only five or six kilometers (three or four miles) short, the aircraft plunged to port and crashed into the Caspian Sea,” Izvestia said.