The jet hit a building, broke up and burst into flames

Nearly 150 people, including many children, are feared dead after a Russian airliner crashed in Siberia.
The S7 Airlines Airbus was flying from Moscow when it crashed on landing at Irkutsk airport.

The plane reportedly slid off the runway and hit a building at about 0800 on Sunday (2300 GMT Saturday).

Both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder have been recovered and will be analyzed in Moscow, Transport Minister Levitin said.

"Experts have started their work on the two flight recorders found at the site," Levitin said. "On the instruction of President (Vladimir) Putin, a governmental commission has been formed with me as head to investigate the causes of the crash and to provide necessary assistance to the relatives of the dead."

The plane was carrying eight crew members and 193 passengers at the time of the crash, a Sibir Airlines spokesman Konstantin Koshman told "Russia Today" English language news service.

Many of the passengers were reported to be children travelling to the nearby popular holiday destination of Lake Baikal.

Six children ages 3 to 13 were brought to a local hospital, one of them in a coma and the rest conscious but in shock, according to a Russian nurse, speaking on "Russia Today."

The pilot of the Airbus A-310 "was more than an experienced pilot," with over 900 hours of flying experience, Koshman said. He said the aircraft was "checked regularly," and had last been inspected 24 hours before the crash.

It is the second fatal crash inside Russia involving an Airbus aircraft this year.
About 55 people were injured, Russian officials said. All the crew were said to have died.

The A-310 - operated by S7, known until recently as Sibir Airlines - appeared to veer out of control on landing.

It overshot the runway then crashed through a concrete wall, before hitting a building close to the airfield. It then broke up and burst into flames.
The cabin was wrecked and passengers were evacuated via the rear of the aircraft, according to rescuers.

Several passengers were seen jumping from the wreckage. Most of those being treated in hospital were suffering from burns.
The fire took three hours to put out, authorities said.

Investigation
Rescue workers are sifting through the wreckage, and have recovered about 120 bodies so far.
The precise cause of the crash remains unclear. Officials said the two flight recorders had been recovered and an investigation is under way.

European aircraft-maker Airbus will help Russia investigate an air crash in Siberia Sunday that claimed more than 100 lives, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

A group of Airbus experts will soon fly into Irkutsk, where an Airbus A-310 crashed in the early hours of July 9, to provide technical assistance during the investigation, the Airbus press office said.

Irkutsk airport was the scene of another fatal crash, in July 2001, when a Tu-154 plane fell to the ground on its final approach, killing all 145 on board. Authorities blamed pilot error.
Just two months ago, on 3 May, an Armenian Airbus A320 flying to Sochi in Russia crashed into the Black Sea killing all 113 people on board.

And in August 2004, 89 passengers and crew died when two aircraft - a Tu-134 and a Tu-154 - crashed about 800km (500 miles) apart on the same night after leaving Moscow's Domodedovo airport.

On May 3, all 113 people aboard an Armavia Airlines flight died when the Airbus 320 crashed into the Black Sea near the Russian resort of Sochi.

The plane had departed from the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

Three Sibir Airlines flights have been involved in fatal accidents inside Russia since 2001, including Sunday's crash.

On Oct. 4, 2001, Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154M was hit by a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile over the Black Sea near Sochi, killing all 77 aboard. The missile was fired as part of a training exercise. The flight was heading from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk in Siberia.

On Aug. 24, 2004, Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154B2 departed Moscow for Sochi and disappeared more than an hour after take-off. All 46 people on board were killed when the plane went down near Millerovo, Russia.

It was one of two flights that went down after leaving Moscow within minutes of each other. Both are believed to have been blown up by Chechen suicide bombers.