Russian airport reopens after deadly plane crash

Moscow, Mar 21: The airport in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don reopened today, two days after a passenger jet crashed there, killing all 62 on board, including an Indian couple, as investigators continued their probe into the disaster.

The flydubai Boeing 737, which took off from Dubai, exploded into a fireball on Saturday after missing the runway in southern Russia while making a second attempt to land in heavy wind and rain.

"The airport is now fully functional," an airport representative told AFP. A plane of the emergency ministry made a successful test landing Monday morning, the ministry said.

On Sunday, officials said workers finished clearing the runway of debris, which according to investigators had been scattered up to 1.5 kilometres (one mile) away from the crash site.

Outbound flights resumed at around 0630 GMT on Monday, but incoming flights to the city of one million people were still either cancelled or delayed.

Investigators have launched a criminal probe into whether poor weather, a pilot error or a technical fault were behind the crash, which killed all 55 passengers and seven crew members on board, including nine different nationalities.

The Indians killed were identified as Mohan Shyam and wife Anju Kathirvel Aiyappan. The plane's two black boxes were recovered from the crash site, and despite considerable damage to the flight data and voice recorders experts began on Monday retrieving information from them, the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) said. It said the analysis of the flight recorders would take time.

AFP