Airline carrying major league player crashed
Published:Wednesday | September 7, 2011 | 12:51 PM
An airliner carrying members of a major league ice hockey team has crashed in Russia killing 43 people.
Witnesses saw the plane burst into flames shortly after taking off from an airport at the city of Yaroslavl, about 250 kilometre north-east of Moscow.
Investigators found wreckage of the plane in the Volga river.
Members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team were on board the plane, on their way to Belarus for the first match of the season.
Officials say two people were unaccounted for after the crash, the cause of which has not been confirmed.
The team, which had been due to play Dinamo Minsk tomorrow, includes players from Germany, Sweden, and Slovakia as well as Russia.
It was not clear how many of the fatalities were members of the team.
The reigning champions UFA had already started their first game of the Kontinental Hockey League season, but abandoned the match when the seriousness of the crash became clear.