MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian airliner that had just taken off from the country’s second-busiest airport crashed killing all 71 people aboard and scattering jagged chunks of wreckage across a snowy field outside Moscow.
The pilots of the An-148 regional jet did not report any problems before the twin-engine aircraft plunged into the field about 25 miles from Domodedovo Airport, authorities said.
The Saratov Airlines flight disappeared from radar just minutes after departure for the city of Orsk, some 1,000 miles to the southeast. The 65 passengers ranged in age from 5 to 79, according to a list posted by the Russian Emergencies Ministry, which did not give their nationalities. Six crew members were also aboard.
Emergency workers combed through the field while investigators descended on the airport to search for clues to what brought the jet down. One of the flight recorders was recovered, Russian news reports said, but it was not immediately clear if it was the data or voice recorder.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Co. following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
In court papers filed in Manhattan, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says the Weinstein Co. “repeatedly broke New York law by failing to protect its employees from pervasive sexual harassment, intimidation and discrimination.”
Schneiderman says any sale of the company “must ensure that victims will be compensated” and that employees will be protected.
Schneiderman launched a civil rights probe into the New York City-based company in October after The New York Times and The New Yorker exposed allegations of sexual assault and harassment spanning decades. The company later fired Weinstein.
PHOENIX (AP) — Four survivors of a deadly tour helicopter crash onto the jagged rocks of the Grand Canyon are being treated at a Nevada hospital while crews tackled difficult terrain in a remote area to try to recover the bodies of three other people.
Six passengers and a pilot were on board the Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters chopper when it crashed under unknown circumstances on the Hualapai Nation’s land near Quartermaster Canyon, by the Grand Canyon’s West Rim. A witness said he saw flames and black smoke spewing from the crash site, heard explosions and saw victims who were bleeding and badly burned.
“It’s just horrible,” witness Teddy Fujimoto said. “And those victims — she was so badly burned. It’s unimaginable, the pain.”
Windy conditions, darkness and the rugged terrain made it difficult to reach the helicopter’s wreckage, Hualapai Nation Police Chief Francis Bradley said. Rescue crews had to fly in, walk to the crash site and use night vision goggles to find their way around, he said.
The survivors were airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital by around 2 a.m. Sunday, Bradley said. The identities and nationalities of the dead and injured weren’t immediately released.