Russian hockey team crash victims laid to rest

[News_Editor]

Russian hockey team crash victims laid to rest

2011-09-11 02:36:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- The bodies of the 14 members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team who died in a plane crash on Wednesday were buried in the Russian city of Yaroslavl on Saturday, local media reported.

The Yak-Service Airlines plane, with 37 passengers and 8 crew members on board, crashed as it was attempting to take off from Tunoshna Airport in Yaroslavl Oblast, which is about 250 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Moscow. Forty-three people, including several foreigners, were killed.

The funerals took place after a memorial ceremony at the sport complex Arena-2000 in Yaroslavl. Since early Saturday morning, fans, friends and family gathered to say farewell to the victims of the deadly crash.

Police barred entry to the cemetery to anyone but relatives and close friends. "Fans will have a chance to visit the graves later," a police official said. "We don't want the relatives to be disturbed during the funerals."

Russian national side player Alexander Galimov and crew-member Alexander Sizov miraculously survived the crash, but both remain in a serious condition, according to RIA Novosti.

Lokomotiv president Yury Yakovlev announced on Saturday that the team would miss the 2011-2012 Kontinental Hockey League. "We should rebuild the team, there's no doubt about that," Yakovlev said. "But to that end, we need time and people."

The Yak-42 aircraft was carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavi ice hockey team to the Belarusian capital of Minsk to play a game. International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel called the crash "the darkest day in the history of our sport."

A criminal case was opened over the air crash. "The detectives have found the main theories behind the air crash: a technical malfunction of the airplane and a piloting mistake. The scope of major investigation actions were scheduled to gather evidence," spokesman of the Investigation Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass news agency on Friday.

Russia has seen a number of major aviation accidents over the last few years, in part because of its use of old aircraft. In early August, eleven people were killed when an Antonov-12 transport plane crashed in the country's Far East.

In July, seven people were killed when an Antonov An-24 crashed into the Ob River, about 63 kilometers (39 miles) from Nizhnevartovsk, a city in Russia's Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

And a total of 47 people were killed on June 20 when a RusLine Tupolev Tu-134 plane crashed during landing near Petrozavodsk, the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, which is one of Russia's federal subjects. Only five people survived the accident.

Most notably, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was among 96 people killed on April 10, 2010, when his Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft crashed near the city of Smolensk in Russia. He was visiting Smolensk for the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn.

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