CNN reports that that there were no survivors after a Boeing 737 passenger jet with 88 people on board, including 7 children and six crew members, crashed at around 21.10 (GMT) en route from Moscow to Perm, Russia's third city. There are reports that some of the passengers were foreigners, including "passport holders from Abkhazia, Germany, France and Ukraine," and authorities are trying to establish the presence of an American citizen on the flight.
Komsomolskaya Pravda says that as the plane approached Perm. eyewitnesses saw that the aircraft was on fire. The pilots steered the aircraft away from residential areas in the Perm suburb of Yeranichi, and the plane fell on the trans-Siberian railroad between Yeranichi and Krokhalevo. Rescue workers are still on the scene. All the crew members are said to have been from Arkhangelsk. KP gives the number of children on board as six.
Interfax gives the number of foreigners killed as 21, citing an Aeroflot official. So far, 9 are identified as being from Azerbaijan, 5 from Ukraine, one each from France, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, United States, Turkey, and Italy.
Interfax also reports that a criminal case has been opened with regard to the crash. The flight recorders - two "black boxes" - have been recovered.
According to Newsru.com, one of the passengers on board the plane was ex-North Caucasus military commander Gennady Troshev.
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