MOSCOW: A dramatic CCTV footage has surfaced showing devastating moment a Russian passenger plane crashed near Moscow, killing all 71 people aboard.
The Saratov Airlines regional jet disappeared from radar screens at 2.28pm on Sunday a few minutes after taking off from Domodedovo Airport.
The An-148 plane crashed, with 65 passengers and six crew aboard, en route to Orsk, a city in the Urals, around 1,000 miles southeast of the capital.
Shocking drone video of the crash site shows how little is left of the plane on the snowy field, where more than 450 body parts have now been collected.
Scroll down for the CCTV footage
Separate footage taken from a surveillance camera near where the crash occurred picked up a fireball and trail of smoke and flames either at or close to ground level.
Experts said today that the crash may have been caused by the collapse of the plane’s anti-icing system leading to possible ice in the engine. There was no mayday or alert from chief pilot Valery Gubanov that the plane, which plunged from 5,900 ft, was in trouble.
Eyewitnesses insisted the plane broke up into pieces mid-air before plunging into the field. But investigators have said that the plane was intact when it ‘suddenly nosedived’ from 5,900 ft and that an explosion came when it struck the surface, not earlier, as had been believed.
‘It was found out that at the time the aircraft fell it was whole, without fire, the explosion happened after the impact,’ the Russian Investigative Committee’s official said.
