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One Dead, 18 Injured After Plane Skids Off Runway During Landing At Sochi Airport

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Flames can be seen after an Utair Boeing 737-800 passenger plane skidded off the runway in Sochi on September 1.
Flames can be seen after an Utair Boeing 737-800 passenger plane skidded off the runway in Sochi on September 1.

An airport worker has died and 18 people were injured when a passenger plane skidded off the runway after landing at Sochi airport in strong winds and heavy rain.

Russia's Transportation Ministry said on September 1 that, while landing in bad weather, the aircraft skidded off the runway and into a riverbed before catching fire.

The airport worker died of a heart attack while assisting with the evacuation of 164 passengers and six crew from the burning wreckage, Transportation Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh said.

The airplane, a Boeing 737, was operated by Utair and was arriving from Moscow.

The cause of the crash has not been determined.

State-run TASS news agency quoted a source as saying the flight-data recorders of the aircraft had been recovered and are in satisfactory condition.

In early August, 18 people were killed when a helicopter crashed after a midair collision in Siberia. Both aircraft were owned by Utair-Helicopter Services, a unit of Utair.

The passengers were workers heading to their shift at an oil-pumping station in eastern Siberia.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and TASS

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