Human error appears to have caused the crash of a commercial flight in Russia that killed 45 people, according to Russia's Deputy Prime Minister.

"I do not want to jump ahead of the investigation but from initial information it is clear that this was a mistake by the pilot in bad weather," Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

The pilots of the RusAir flight from Moscow were believed to have attempted an emergency landing on a highway about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the plane's destination, Petrozavodsk airport in the Karelia region.

The head of the airport, Alexei Kuzmitsky, described the weather at that time as "unfavorable," saying there had been heavy fog and rain when the plane tried to land.

According to Ivanov, the flight's crew tried to spot the runway visually at the last moment despite the poor weather conditions.

"He did not land on the runway, but to the right," Ivanov said.

The Tupolev Tu-134 broke into pieces and erupted in flames as it splintered off tree tops and broke through a fence dangerously close to a residential area.

The Karelia branch of Russia's Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on its website that the plane had sustained a "hard landing" and that contact with the pilot had been lost at 11:40 p.m. local time.

A total of 43 passengers and a crew of nine had been traveling on the plane. Eight survivors were taken to the hospital, six of whom remained in serious condition, according to the health ministry. A young boy of nine or 10 died of his injuries in hospital on Tuesday night.

Investigation into breach of rules

A spokesman for the investigative committee told Russian news agencies that a criminal probe was being opened into neglect of air transport rules.

The Tupolev-134 model, a Soviet-era aircraft, had its maiden flight in 1967. RusAir officials told Russian news agencies that the ill-fated plane had been manufactured in 1981 and had been completely checked before take-off with no sign of technical problems.

While most of the passengers were Russian, a Swedish national, a Dutch citizen, two Ukrainians, and a family of four with dual Russian and US citizenships perished in the crash. The aircraft's black boxes were reported to have been recovered by investigators.

One of the most high-profile air disasters involving a Tupolev aircraft was in April 2010 when Polish President Lech Kaczynski's Tupolev Tu-154 plane crashed near Smolensk airport in Russia. That crash killed 96 people including Kaczynski, his wife and numerous senior officials.

"Unfortunately, this looks like a repeat of the Polish scenario," Deputy Prime Minister Ivanov said.

Author: Spencer Kimball, Richard Connor (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Martin Kuebler