Plane Crash in Siberia - II

FE/RL has some background details on the July 8 air crash in Irkutsk, Siberia, in which at least 124 people are now thought to have died:

The disaster is the fourth air crash in Irkutsk in the past 12 years.

In January 1994, a TU-154 aircraft crashed on takeoff, killing 124 people. In December 1997, an An-124 military transport aircraft crashed in a residential area of the city, killing 72 people.

Irkutsk airport was the scene of another fatal crash, in July 2001, when a TU-154 plane plunged to the ground as it was making its final approach to the runway. All 145 on board died.

This is the second Airbus crash in Russia in recent months.

In May, an Airbus A-320 belonging to the Armenian airline Armavia crashed in the Black Sea while trying to land at the Russian seaside resort of Sochi in bad weather. All 113 passengers and crew were killed.