Emergency workers in Russia searched snow-covered fields outside Moscow on Monday, looking for body fragments and clues after a fatal plane crash a day earlier killed all 71 people on board. President Vladimir Putin has ordered a special commission to investigate what caused the AN-148 aircraft operated by Saratov Airlines to crash outside Moscow shortly after taking off for the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, about 1,500km southeast of the capital. Among the possible causes investigators are looking into are weather conditions, human error and the plane’s technical condition. Debris and human remains are spread over a radius of a kilometre around the crash site, investigators have said. The plane, manufactured in 2010, had been carrying 65 passengers and six crew.

Source: The Irish Times February 12, 2018 10:18 UTC