MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BDCi) — The only member of a top Russian hockey team to survive a plane crash that killed 44 people died Monday of his injuries in a Moscow hospital. Despite the best efforts of doctors in the burn unit at Vishnevsky hospital, 26-year-old Alexander Galimov died of the severe burns that covered 90 percent of his body. The crash Wednesday of a chartered Yak-42 jet outside the western city of Yaroslavl took the lives of 37 players, coaches and staff of the local Lokomotiv Yaroslal ice hockey club. The only other person to survive the crash, filght crew member Alexander Sizov, remained in critical condition in Moscow’s Sklifosovsky hospital. Russian aviation experts say they have come to no conclusions yet about the cause of the crash. The plane appeared to have trouble gaining altitude, but investigators said its flight data recorders showed that all three engines were operating up until the moment the plane crashed.
Experts blame Russia’s poor aviation safety record on an aging fleet, weak government controls, poor pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality.
By Natania Levine Source: ESPN Photo Yahoo 12 September 2011
12:02 p.m. P.D.T