43 killed in Russian ice hockey team air disaster

TUNOSHNA, Russia, Sept 8, 2011 (AFP) - A jet carrying a major Russian ice hockey team to their season-opening match has crashed shortly after take-off, killing at least 43 people, including several former Olympic and NHL stars.

The Yak-42 was flying members of three-time Russian champions Lokomotiv Yaroslavl to a game in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Wednesday when it went down some 300 kilometres (185 miles) northeast of Moscow.

The chief local surgeon told Channel One television that one Russian player, identified as Alexander Galimov, and a crew member had survived but were in grave condition.

The crash occurred near the site of an annual political conference to be attended Thursday by President Dmitry Medvedev ahead of key parliamentary and presidential elections.

"This is not only a Russian tragedy. It's a terrible tragedy for the global ice hockey community," said Rene Fasel, the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Among those killed were the team's Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon -- a former assistant with the NHL's Detroit Red Wings -- goalie and former Swedish Olympic champion Stefan Liv as well as Slovak ex-NHL standout Pavol Demitra.

Three Czech stars -- Jan Marek, Josef Vasicek and Karel Rachunek -- were also among the dead.

Thirty-one-year-old center Marek and 32-year-old defenceman Rachunek were world champions from 2010, while the 31-year-old center Vasicek had a world title from 2005.

Latvian hockey star Karlis Skrastins, 37, who had signed with the Russian team after playing with several in the NHL, was also among the dead. German officials named a victim from Germany, Robert Dietrich.

Thousands of the team's fans flocked to the ice arena in the evening for a candlelight vigil, placing heaps of roses and fan scarves near its walls.

By grim coincidence, Medvedev -- who is also expected to tour the scene of the wreckage -- was set to speak from Lokomotiv's ice hockey arena which has been turned into the forum venue for the two-day event.

The sorrow spread across the global ice hockey community.

"Though it occurred thousands of miles away from our home arenas, this tragedy represents a catastrophic loss to the hockey world, including the NHL family, which lost so many fathers, sons, teammates and friends who at one time excelled in our league," said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

The local emergencies ministry said the plane began listing to the left only seconds into the afternoon flight and crashed about 500 metres (yards) away from the Tunoshna airport.

Initial reports said the jet may have hit a local radar antenna. The twisted wreckage of the aircraft lay buried in the Tunoshna River as divers searched for signs of life.

"We saw a plane and then heard a boom. There was a huge flame that quickly turned to smoke," said 16-year-old witness Andrei Gorshkov.

"It was so scary, we did not know what to do," he told AFP.

"The plane failed to reach the required altitude, hit an obstacle and started falling to pieces. It burst into flames on impact," a local police official was quoted as saying.

Natalia Panova, a doctor at Tunoshna's small hospital, was the first medic at the scene. By the time her ambulance arrived, most were beyond help.

"The plane caught fire and blew up. Someone was without a leg, someone was without a head," she told AFP. "There was blood everywhere, mangled bodies. I am still shaking."

The crash revived memories of an August 1979 disaster that claimed the lives of 17 football players from the Tashkent side Pakhtakor and put the spotlight once again on Russia's poor aviation safety record.

The disaster comes on the heels of a summer full of deadly transport mishaps. (AFP)