Russian jet crash kills 43, many top hockey stars

The crash killed at least 43 people and left two others critically injured, officials said.It was one of the worst plane crashes ever involving a sports team.The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42 plane crashed into a riverbank on the Volga River immediately after leaving an airport near the western city of Yaroslavl, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow. It was sunny at the time.It said the plane was carrying the Lokomotiv ice hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where the team was to play Thursday against Dinamo Minsk in the opening game of the season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The plane had 45 people on board, including 37 passengers and eight crew.Officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.Eleven foreign players were reportedly onboard the jet. A Czech embassy official said Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek were among those killed.The plane that crashed was relatively new, built in 1993, and belonged to a small Moscow-based Yak Service company.Swarms of police and rescue crews rushed to Tunoshna, a picturesque village with a blue-domed church on the banks of the Volga River. One of the planes engines could be seen poking out of the river and a flotilla of boats combed the water for bodies. Russian rescue workers struggled to heft the bodies of large, strong athletes in stretchers up the muddy, steep riverbank.One resident, Irina Pryakhova, saw the plane going down, then heard a loud bang and saw a plume of smoke.It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong, she said. I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on.Prime Minister Vladimir Putin immediately sent the nations transport minister to the site, 10 miles (15 kilometers) east of Yaroslavl. President Dmitry Medvedev also planned to tour the crash site.