Siberian airline Utair’s plane Boeing 737-800 caught fire after runway excursion during landing in the Russian city of Sochi. The aircraft, carrying 164 passengers from Moscow, landed in Sochi, but suffered runway runway excursion, slipped into a river where the wing and its landing gear had been destroyed and the left-hand CFM56 engine ignited.
All the passengers and the crew were evacuated without reported casualties. However, 18 people were injured, including three children.
During the accident, an airport employee died of a heart attack.
All the injured people were transported to the local hospital for medical treatment. None of them has life-threatening injuries.
An investigation for the root cause of the accident was initiated.
The meteorological data from Sochi airport indicates that it had been experiencing thunderstorms and rain, and wind gusts exceeding 40 kts. Weather data shortly after the landing indicates a wind direction from the south-west, suggesting a tailwind for aircraft landing on runway 06.
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range twinjet narrow-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from the 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of ten passenger models with capacities from 85 to 215 passengers. The 737 is Boeing’s only narrow-body airliner in production, with the 737 Next Generation (-700, -800, and -900ER) and the re-engined and updated 737 MAX variants currently being built.
Boeing 737-800 seats 162 passengers in a two-class layout or 189 passengers in a one-class layout.
