Gulf Plane Crash Kills 85; 1 Survives
A charter flight from Tajikistan crashed into desert sand Monday near an airport in the United Arab Emirates, killing 85 people. One person survived.
An explosion rocked the plane as it started to land, said Rustam Rustamov, vice president of the state-owned Tojikiston State Air Co., which chartered the flight. But Emirates officials of the Persian Gulf nation said they had no report of a blast.
The Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154, which Tojikiston owned, was carrying 77 passengers and nine crew members. The plane took off from Khudzhand, Tajikistan, and went down in a desert nine miles from the Sharjah airport, the state-run Emirates News Agency said.
Two survivors were taken to a hospital in Sharjah, but one of them died soon after arriving, a hospital official said. The surviving passenger was identified as Sergei Petrov, 37.
The Sharjah airport is a major hub for airlines from the former Soviet republics, most of which operate aging planes.
The Tu-154, a three-engine, medium-range aircraft, has been involved in a number of deadly accidents in recent years.
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