Russian passenger plane crashes; three-man crew dies | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Russian passenger plane crashes; three-man crew die

MOSCOW – A Russian passenger plane crashed near Moscow on Friday while flying without passengers, killing the three-man crew, officials said.

According to rescue workers, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into a forest near the village of Apraksino, about 88 kilometers southeast of the Russian capital.

The plane belonged to Gazprom Avia, an airline owned by Russian state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom.

Gazprom Avia said the plane had taken off from an aircraft factory in Lukhovitsy, 110 kilometers southeast of the Russian capital, where it was being repaired. It crashed eight minutes after takeoff on the way to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport.

The cause of the crash was initially unclear, but some Russian media reports suggested that both of the plane’s engines had probably failed, which was due to a bird strike.

The Investigation Committee, the state’s top criminal police agency, has launched an investigation into the crash.

The Russian-made Superjet 100, also known as the SSJ100, was hailed by Russian authorities as a major success for the country’s civil aviation industry when it entered service in 2011, but it has a spotty safety record.

Attempt to relax Polish abortion law fails

WARSAW, Poland – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his centrist coalition government suffered a crushing defeat in parliament on Friday, where a narrow majority rejected a bill that would have relaxed strict abortion laws.

The vote was 218 to 215 with two abstentions. The liberalization draft was rejected.

Tusk and his liberal parliamentary group, the Civic Coalition, supported the bill, which would have abolished the current penalty for people who help women obtain an abortion, which carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

Liberalisation was a central part of Tusk’s programme to reverse numerous policies of the previous right-wing government that had provoked fierce protests.

However, some MPs from the broader governing coalition – most notably the majority of the agrarian Polish People’s Party, but also some others – voted against the change, revealing cracks in the governing bloc. Three votes from Tusk’s own party were missing, and the prime minister threatened consequences.

Of the 460 seats in the lower house (Sejm), Tusk’s Civic Coalition faction holds 157 seats, the coalition members Third Way and Agrarian Party have a further 63 votes, while the allied Left Party contributes another 23 votes, so that together they have the majority.

Left-wing MPs who supported the bill announced that they would submit it repeatedly until it was adopted.

Search for bodies in luggage continues

LONDON – Human remains found in two suitcases near a bridge in the southwestern English city of Bristol are those of two adult men, police said Friday.

The manhunt has been expanded for a man who was acting suspiciously before Wednesday’s discovery. He is believed to have travelled from London earlier in the day and London’s Metropolitan Police are now leading the investigation.

The victims have not yet been officially identified, but both are believed to be adults. An autopsy was deemed “inconclusive” while a second autopsy is pending.

A crime scene has been set up in the west London borough of Shepherd’s Bush, with police urging the public to call emergency services if they see the suspect.

“Do not approach him,” said Deputy Chief Constable Andy Valentine, who is leading the investigation for the Met.

Officers from Avon and Somerset Police arrived at the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge around midnight on Wednesday, ten minutes after being alerted to a man behaving strangely. But the man, who had arrived by taxi, had already disappeared.

Deadly school collapse in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria – A two-story school collapsed during morning classes in northern Nigeria on Friday, killing 22 students and sending rescue workers frantically searching for more than 100 people trapped under the rubble, authorities said.

The Saints Academy College in Busa Buji local government area of ​​Plateau State collapsed shortly after students, many of them 15 years old or younger, arrived for classes.

A total of 154 students were initially trapped in the rubble, but Plateau police spokesman Alfred Alabo later said 132 of them had been rescued and were being treated for their injuries in various hospitals. He said 22 students had died. An earlier report in local media said at least 12 people had been killed.

Dozens of villagers gathered near the school, some crying, others offering help as excavators combed through the rubble of the collapsed part of the building.

A woman was seen crying and trying to get closer to the rubble while others held her back.

Nigeria’s national disaster management agency said rescue and medical personnel as well as security forces were on site immediately after the collapse and began searching for the trapped students.

FILE – A Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger plane performs during the MAKS-2019 International Aviation and Space Exhibition in Zhukovsky outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. A Russian passenger plane crashed Friday, July 12, 2024, while flying without passengers, killing the three-person crew, officials said. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed in the Moscow region, according to Russian emergency officials. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

People and rescue workers gather at the site where a two-story building collapsed in Jos, Nigeria, on Friday. (AP)

A student is rescued from the rubble of a collapsed two-story school building in Jos, Nigeria, on Friday. At least 22 students were killed when the building collapsed in northern Nigeria, burying them under rubble, authorities said. See more photos at arkansasonline.com/713jos/. (AP)