Plane carrying football fans crashes in Ukraine, killing 5

USPA News - Five people were killed on Wednesday when a passenger plane crashed while attempting to land at an airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, local authorities said on Thursday. The captain of the flight reportedly blamed thick fog as the cause.

The accident happened at approximately 6:09 p.m. local time on Wednesday when the Soviet-designed Antonov An-24 attempted to land at the international airport in Donetsk, a city located in Ukraine`s eastern Donets Basin region. It was carrying 44 passengers and 8 crew members on a flight from the Black Sea port of Odessa. Ukraine`s Emergencies Ministry said five people were killed and nine others were injured, all of whom were said to be in a stable condition. It is believed the aircraft landed short of the runway and struck a meteorological tower, causing the plane to overturn and break into several pieces. The captain of South Airlines flight 8971, Serhiy Miloshenko, told Ukraine`s Channel 5 on Thursday that thick fog was the cause of Wednesday`s accident. "The visibility of the runway was poor. To be more precise, it was not visible at all," he said, adding that the aircraft`s engines were operating normally. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation to determine the exact cause of the accident. Rescue operations at the scene continued for several hours and were made difficult because workers had difficulty accessing severely battered parts of the aircraft. All of the passengers on board the aircraft were traveling to Donetsk to attend the UEFA Champions League match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Dortmund.