2-IN-1 STORY: All 62 Aboard Dubai Airliner Killed In Crash In South Russia; Russian Air Disasters Of Past Decade

Flydubai Flight FZ981 Crash: Plane Carrying 55 Passengers Crashes While Landing In Southern Russia

A Dubai airliner with 62 people on board crashed and caught fire early Saturday while landing in strong winds in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, killing all aboard, officials said.

Associated Press report continues:

A list published by Russia's Emergencies Ministry showed the Boeing 737-800 operated by FlyDubai was carrying 55 passengers, most of them Russian, and seven crew members, whose nationalities were not immediately known. The Emergencies Ministry said that all had been killed.

It was the budget carrier's first crash since it began operations in 2009. In a statement, FlyDubai confirmed that Flight 981 crashed on landing and there were no survivors. Four children were among those killed, it said.

"Our primary concern is for the families of the passengers and crew who were on board. Everyone at FlyDubai is in deep shock and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those involved," said CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith.

This frame grab provided by Rostov-on-Don I General company from black and white CCTV footage shows road and behind line of trees fireball, believed to be a plane on fire, crashes to ground at the Rostov-on-Don airport, about 950 kilometers (600 miles) south of Moscow, Russia Saturday, March 19, 2016. An airliner coming from Dubai crashed early Saturday while landing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said. (Rostov-on-Don I General company via AP)

Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region some 950 kilometers (600 miles) south of Moscow, was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling local journalists that the plane crashed about 250 meters (800 feet) short of the runway.

The cause of the crash was not immediately determined, but Golubev said: "By all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level."

The Russian Emergencies Ministry said the plane clipped the ground with a wing and caught fire.

According to the weather data reported by Russian state television, winds at the moment of the crash at an altitude of 500 meters (1,640 feet) and higher were around 30 meters per second (67 miles per hour).

Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, told The Associated Press that the plane missed its approach then entered a holding pattern.

According to Flightradar24, the plane circled for about two hours before making another attempt to land. According to its data, the plane began climbing again after a go-around when it suddenly started to fall with vertical speed of up to 21,000 feet/min.

The CCTV footage the plane going down in a steep angle and exploding in a giant fireball.

Some Russian aviation experts said the steep descent appeared to indicate that the crash most probably have been caused by a gust of wind.

"It was an uncontrollable fall," said Sergei Kruglikov, a veteran Russian pilot, said on Russian state television. He said that a sudden change in wind speed and direction could have caused the wings to abruptly lose their lifting power.

Another seasoned pilot, Viktor Zabolotsky, said a gust of wind probably caused the airliner to lose speed and crash as the pilot was making an attempt to go round.

President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the victims' families and top Russian Cabinet officials flew to the crash site to oversee the investigation.

Officials said the plane and bodies of the victims were pulverized by the powerful explosion, but investigators already have found one of the Boeing's flight recorders.

FlyDubai was launched in 2008 by the government of Dubai, the Gulf commercial hub that is part of the seven-state United Arab Emirates federation. Its first flight took to the skies in 2009. It has been flying to Rostov-on-Don since 2013.

It shares a chairman with Dubai's government-backed Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline, though the two carriers operate independently and maintain separate operations from their bases at Dubai International Airport, the region's busiest airport.

FlyDubai's fleet is dominated by relatively young 737-800 aircraft, like the one that crashed. The airline says it operates more than 1,400 flights a week.

Rostov-on-Don, Russia

The airline has expanded rapidly in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Dubai is a popular tourist destination for Russian visitors, who are attracted by its beaches, shopping malls and year-round sunshine. Many Russian expatriates live and work in Dubai, a city where foreigners outnumber locals more than 4-to-1.

FlyDubai has a good safety record. In January 2015, one of its planes was struck on the fuselage by what appeared to small-arms fire shortly before it landed in Baghdad. That flight landed safely with no major injuries reported.

On Oct. 31, a Russian airliner blew up in the air over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard. Investigators determined it was destroyed by a bomb onboard.

Russian Air Disasters Of Past Decade

Associated Press reports that a look at notable disasters over the past decade involving Russian planes or foreign planes:

— March 19, 2016: A Boeing 737-800 flown by FlyDubai crashes while landing at Rostov-on-Don, killing all 62 aboard.

— Oct. 31, 2015: An onboard bomb destroys a Metrojet airliner soon after taking off from Egypt's Sharm al-Sheikh resort. All 244 people aboard die.

— Nov. 17, 2013: All 50 people aboard a Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 are killed when the crew sends the plane into a steep dive while trying to land in Kazan.

— May 10, 2012: A Sukhoi Superjet on a demonstration flight for potential buyers smashes into a volcano in Indonesia with 45 people aboard. There are no survivors.

— April 2, 2012: A UTAir ATR-72 crashes shortly after takeoff from Tyumen; 33 are killed, 10 survive. Poor de-icing of the plane is blamed.

— Sept. 7, 2011: A Yak-42 carrying the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team crashes soon after takeoff from Yaroslavl, killing all 44 aboard.

— June 20, 2011: Forty-seven people die when a Tu-134 crashes on a highway in heavy fog in heavy fog while trying to land in Petrozavodsk.

— April 10, 2010: A Polish government plane carrying President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others crashes while attempting to land in Smolensk; all die. Warsaw and Moscow continue to dispute whether the crew ignored poor weather conditions or if air-traffic controllers gave poor gudance.

—Sept. 14, 2008: 88 people are killed when a Boeing 737-500 flying from Moscow crashes as it prepares to land in the Russian city of Perm.

—Aug. 24, 2008: a Boeing 737-500 carrying 90 people, including a Kyrgyz high-school sports team, crashes shortly after takeoff near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, killing 65.

—Aug. 22, 2006: A Tupolev Tu-154 of Russia's Pulkovo Airlines with about 170 people aboard crashes in Ukraine en route from a Russian resort to St. Petersburg. All on board are killed.

—July 9, 2006: At least 124 people die when an Airbus A-310 of the Russian company S7 skids off the runway in the Siberian city of Irkutsk and bursts into flames.

—May 3, 2006: An A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia crashes into the Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.