Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called yesterday for fast changes to Russia’s troubled air transport industry — including a sharp reduction in the number of airlines — as the country mourned a crash that killed 43 people, among them most of a top hockey team with European and NHL players.
Wednesday’s crash, which killed 36 players, coaches and staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team, drew new attention to the poor air safety records of Russia and some other former Soviet republics. Experts blame the age of the aircraft, weak government controls, poor pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality.
Air crash investigators could not immediately pinpoint the reason that the Yak-42 to hit the banks of the Volga River shortly after takeoff from Yaroslavl, 240km northeast of Moscow. Workers labored yesterday to raise the plane’s shattered tail section, which houses one of the plane’s on-board recorders, Russian news agencies quoted Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.
The plane crashed on the opening day of an international forum in Yaroslavl that was to showcase it as a modern and vibrant city. Medvedev laid flowers at the crash site and met with officials, and later opened his speech at the forum by calling for a moment of silence to commemorate the victims.
“The number of air companies should be radically reduced and it’s necessary to do this within the shortest time,” Medvedev said in comments at the meeting broadcast on Russian television.
Yesterday morning, hundreds of local residents gathered at the city’s Russian Orthodox cathedral to mourn the victims. Many of them wore team scarves, some of the women using them to cover their heads as church ritual requires.
The crashed jet was built in 1993 and one of its three engines was replaced a month ago, Russian Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov told reporters. It is unclear whether technical failure played a role in the crash, but the plane apparently struggled to gain altitude and then hit a signal tower, before breaking apart along the Volga.
Okulov said federal transportation authorities were considering grounding flights by Yak-42 planes, Okulov was quoted as saying. There are 57 of the planes in service in Russia.
There were only two crash survivors and both were reported in very serious condition. They were being flown to Moscow for treatment, Russian news agencies reported.
Among the dead were Lokomotiv coach and National Hockey League veteran Brad McCrimmon, a Canadian; assistant coach Alexander Karpovtsev, one of the first Russians to have his name etched on the Stanley Cup as a member of the New York Rangers; and Pavol Demitra, who played for the St Louis Blues and the Vancouver Canucks and was the Slovakia national team captain.
Other standouts killed were Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, Latvian defenseman Karlis Skrastins and defenseman Ruslan Salei of Belarus.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique