Three killed as passengers flee Russian jet engulfed in flames on runway

A RUSSIAN passenger jet carrying 124 people caught fire as it taxied down a snowy runway in Siberia before exploding, killing three people and injuring 43, six of whom were badly burned.

Many of the passengers and crew were evacuated before the explosion, however, they described a chaotic scene as the burning plane filled with thick, black smoke.

As the fire took hold, panicked passengers climbed over one another to rush through flames to escape. Eyewitnesses said some passengers ran through the flames in an attempt to escape the cabin.

An emergency services spokesman said the fire, which began in one of the engines as the plane taxied for takeoff, caused a powerful blast that destroyed the Tu-154 aircraft and spread flames across 1,000 square meters.

Russian television showed video taken with a mobile telephone of the burning plane, its centre a giant fireball. All that remained afterwards was the tail section and part of a wing.

The spokesman said 10 people were seriously injured, including six who were badly burned and four who suffered broken bones or other trauma. Most of the other injured passengers sought treatment for poisoning after inhaling toxic fumes.

The plane, which belonged to the regional Kogalymavia airline, was to fly from the western Siberian town of Surgut to Moscow. Among the passengers were members of the Russian pop group Na-Na, who described the panic on board the plane.

"First we heard a clap and then there were flames in the back of the plane and people immediately panicked," group member Yury Rymarev said on NTV television. He said flight attendants tried to calm the passengers, but the flames began to spread, especially after one of the passengers opened an emergency exit and air rushed in.

The plane quickly filled up with smoke that was black and acrid from burning plastic, Rymarev said.

Another group member, Sergei Grigoryev, who was sitting in the back of plane, described how passengers clambered over the heads of those in front of them as they rushed to get out. "My whole life flashed before my eyes and I'm still upset," he wrote on the website of Na-Na, a group that was popular in Russia in the 1990s.

The Tu-154 has been the workhorse of the Soviet and post-Soviet civilian aviation industry, first entering service in the 1970s. But after a series of crashes involving the aging fleet raised safety concerns, flagship carrier Aeroflot withdrew all of its Tu-154s from service, with the last flight a year ago.

However, the mid-range jet remains the mainstay of smaller airlines across Russia and the former Soviet Union. Just last month, two people were killed and 83 injured in an accident involving engine failure on a Tu-154.