An-24 ulykken

Ukraine: conflicting reports for cause of crash


Witnesses and officials are giving conflicting information on what caused a plane to crash land in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

The Soviet-designed AN-24 passenger plane carrying soccer fans headed for a match against a German team crash-landed during a scheduled landing at Donetsk airport Wednesday evening. It hit the ground between two landing strips, broke into two parts and caught fire. Of the 52 people on board, five were killed and nine were injured.

The head of the Southern Airlines, which operated the flight, told a local TV channel he believed the pilot of the plane should not have landed due to heavy fog. But one survivor reported engine failure, while a student pilot said one of the engines caught fire after hitting the ground.