13 passengers dead after Russian plane catches fire

At least 13 people on board a Russian Aeroflot plane died on Sunday when the plane caught fire mid-air and made an emergency landing at a Moscow airport , Russian news agencies reported.

Video footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet-100 making an emergency landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with the rear part of the plane engulfed in flames .

Several passengers managed to escape the fire through the plane’s emergency slides that inflated after the hard landing.

Medical workers told the TASS news agency that at least 13 people had died , 7 were injure d, and that others remained unaccounted for.

Russian news agencies said the plane , which had been flying from Moscow to the Russian city of Murmansk before turning back, had been carrying 78 passengers and five crew members .

Russian authorities

said they had opened an investigation and were looking into whether the pilots had breached air safety rules.

The cause of the fire is unknown .

It was reported that a rescue team was combing through the charred wreckage of the rear of the plane looking for survivors .

The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the plane had circled twice over Moscow before making an emergency landing after about 45 minutes.

President Vladimir Putin

has ordered a “thorough investigation” of the incident.

On its website, Russia's Investigative Committee announced it has launched a criminal probe into the incident. This committee conducts investigations into incidents where lives are lost.

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