An-28 Carrying 17 Crashes in Estonia
A chartered Elk Airways airliner with 17 people on board plunged into a forested marsh on a Baltic Sea island with virtually no warning, killing one and injuring several others.
The accident on Friday evening — the first major plane crash in Estonia since it regained independence from the Soviet Union 10 years ago — occurred just two kilometers before the An-28`s designated airport runway on Hiiumaa island.
Passenger John Pass, a 38-year-old Canadian of Estonian decent who grew up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, said Saturday that the Russian-built aircraft appeared to be descending normally after a 30-minute flight from Tallinn.
But from his seat at the back of the plane, he saw the two pilots at the controls in the cockpit suddenly start frantically flipping control switches and the plane drifted sideways. Within seconds it plowed into the ground.
``I`ve flown on this plane many times and the approach to the airport could always be shaky,`` he said by telephone from a house he owns on Hiiumaa, some 130 kilometers southwest of Tallinn.
``It was only when I saw the pilots doing this that I realized something wasn't right and put my head down. There'd been no warning over the intercom from the captain,`` said Pass, who was treated for what appeared to be a pulled muscle but was otherwise unhurt.
Water poured in from the marsh after the plane carrying three crew and 14 passengers crashed.
Several children at the front of the plane, the most heavily damaged section, were screaming and crying as the plane slid to a stop, Pass said. Pictures in local newspapers Saturday showed a big hole in the front of the plane, the wings snapped off and other twisted metal wreckage.
It was snowing at the time of the accident and temperatures were at or just above freezing, said police spokesman Indrek Raudjalg. Investigators have vis…
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