MOSCOW. Oct 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Poor weather in which the crew failed to perform a landing attempt could have caused the crash of an airliner on a flight from Moscow to Minsk on Monday night, a source in the Russian Transport Ministry told Interfax.
"The plane's wreckage was found at a distance of 3 kilometers from the landing strip at Minsk airport, left of the landing course, at 00:19 a.m. on Tuesday. The BAE-125 No.RA-02807, owned by S-Air company, flew out from Moscow's Vnukovo-3 airport to Minsk at 9:06 p.m. on Monday. There were two passengers aboard the plane - Marat Romashkin, the air company's president, and his bodyguard, and three crewmembers: crew commander Alexander Samoilov, second pilot Sergei Snimshchikov and flight attendant Olesya Latutina. A third registered passenger did not board the plane", he said.
The crew failed to land at first go due to a fog and a strong wind, and made a second try, but the plane crashed and caught fire.
The Inter-State Aviation Committee has set up a commission to investigate the crash.