
Forty-one people are believed to have died after a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing at Moscow's busiest airport and caught fire, investigators said on Sunday.

'There were 78 people including crew members on board the plane,' the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

'According to the updated info which the investigation has as of now, 37 people survived.'

Two children are among those confirmed dead following the inferno on the Sukhoi Superjet at Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

Terrified passengers were seen fleeing the Russian national carrier Aeroflot plane as flames flared from the rear of the aircraft with 78 on board.

Shocking footage from on board the Russian-built plane as it landed captured horrific flames engulfing the windows and the screams of passengers as they were gripped by panic.

Yet an airport official said that ‘many passengers delayed emergency evacuation - because against all instructions - they were picking up hand luggage from overhead compartments.’

The aircraft made two attempts to crash land soon after take-off from Russia's capital to the Arctic city of Murmansk.

Initial indications suggest an electrical fault might have caused the fire while the plane was in the air.

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Thirteen people were killed when a Russian plane (pictured) exploded into flames mid-air as it made an emergency landing

Smoke and flames can be seen bursting from the aircraft in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday. The cause of the fire remains unclear

Terrified passengers scrambled to evacuate the aircraft at Moscow's main international airport after the fire took hold

The SSJ-100 aircraft of Aeroflot Airlines on fire during an emergency landing in Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia

One passenger said: ‘I was sitting in front of the engine, and saw how everything melted.

‘Somehow I managed to reach the exit, inhaling carbon monoxide. The flight attendants said: “Come on, quickly, crawl, a little bit left until the exit. As a result, I managed to jump off the plane.’

Aeroflot said the passenger plane was forced to turn back after takeoff because of technical problems.

In a brief statement on Sunday, it said the engines of the Sukhoi SSJ100 were burning after the aircraft landed, but the sequence of events before and after the fire started was not clear.

Some Russian news reports cited sources as saying the plane headed back to the airport after a fire was detected in flight. Others said the plane made a hard landing that could have caused the engines to catch fire.

A spokeswoman for the crash investigation team, Svetlana Petrenko, earlier confirmed the death of two children.

Eleven people were injured, Dmitry Matveyev, the Moscow region's health minister said earlier in the day.

A flight attendant who attempted to rescue some of the 73 passengers from the blaze was said to be among the dead. He was named locally as Maxim Moiseev. There were five crew members on board.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft of Airflot Airlines is seen after an emergency landing in Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow

A tower of smoke sits above the Russian-made aircraft as it exploded into flames on Sunday evening in the country's capital

The Russian plane exploded in a fireball as it made an emergency landing at Moscow's main international airport today

Footage showed a column of smoke towering over the plane. Other images showed the aircraft on fire as it attempted to land, then distraught passengers leaving by a forward door

The stricken plane was clearly visible from the main terminals at the airport in the north of Moscow on Sunday evening

Interfax agency reported that the plane, a Russian-made Superjet-100, had just taken off from Sheremetyevo airport on a domestic route when the crew issued a distress signal.

‘It attempted an emergency landing but did not succeed the first time, and on the second time the landing gear hit (the ground), then the nose did, and it caught fire,’ a source said.

It reported that the tail was completely burned and said a rescue team was trying to find survivors in that part of the plane.

Ambulances were sent to the scene of the landing and the passengers were evacuated, with the airport now closed for arrivals and departures.

Flightradar24 tracking service showed that it made two circles around Moscow and landed after about 45 minutes

Three flight attendants were believed to be on board the aircraft during the inferno, including Tatiana Kasatkina, Maxim Moiseev, and Ksenia Vogel (pictured)

A British Airways plane could be seen on the tarmac and the airport is closed for arrivals and departures

Flames were seen flaring from the rear of the Russian-built aircraft with 78 on board. It was carrying 73 passengers and five crew members

However, there were local reports of emergency services being refused access to the scene with paramedics held at checkpoints for up to seven minutes.

The airline said the number of victims was 'being specified' and that emergency medical care was being provided to the injured.

Footage showed a column of smoke towering over the plane. Other images showed the aircraft on fire as it attempted to land, then distraught passengers leaving by a forward door.

Video captured passengers leaping from the plane onto an inflatable slide from the front of the aircraft and staggering across tarmac and grass of the airport.

The stricken plane was clearly visible from the main terminals at the airport in the north of Moscow and a British Airways plane could be seen on the tarmac alongside it.

A passenger called mikkentosh posted on social media: 'Guys I am all right, I am alive and in one piece.

The crash landing was on the aircraft's second approach for an emergency landing. The plane had registration number RA-89098

The remains of the Russian-made Superjet-100 at the landing strip of Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow following the fire

An emergency service car is parked at the entrance of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday evening

Aircraft crew members leave the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. Several flights have been diverted to other Moscow airports or Nizhny Novgorod, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of the Russian capital

'I managed to jump out. This was the 17.50 Moscow to Murmansk flight. Definitely not everyone managed to escape, huge condolences to families and friends.'

The Sukhoi Superjet-100 was the first civilian aircraft developed in Russia's post-Soviet era and at the time of its launch, in 2011, was a source of national pride.

But it struggled to convince buyers from airlines outside Russia, and several foreign airlines that did buy it have since prefered to cut back its use or phase it out completely, citing its reliability.

The Russian government offered subsidies to encourage Russian airlines to buy the Superjet and Russian airline Aeroflot became its main operator. In September 2018, it announced a record order of 100 Superjet-100s.

Criminal investigators are examining the cause of the crash amid reports that an electrical fault had caused the inferno after take-off.

Ambulances are parked in front of the terminal building of the Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow after a Russian-made Superjet-100 on fire attempted an emergency landing

Emergency service cars are parked at the entrance of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday evening

Other local reports suggest the plane had suffered 'communications problems' and the fire engulfed the Sukhoi as it returned to Moscow to land. There were also suggests that the plane had been hit by lightning, although there was no official confirmation.

The tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted one passenger, Petr Egorov, who said: 'We had just taken off and the aircraft was hit by lightning.... The landing was rough, I almost passed out from fear.'

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has also ordered a special committee to investigate the disaster, Ria Novosti agency reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Russian Vladimir Putin had offered his condolences to the victims' loved ones.

Several flights have been diverted to other Moscow airports or Nizhny Novgorod, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of the Russian capital.

The plane had registration number RA-89098. Flightradar24 tracking service showed that it made two circles around Moscow and landed after about 45 minutes.

Criminal investigators are examining the cause of the crash amid reports that an electrical fault had caused the inferno after take-off

The Sukhoi SSJ100 aircraft of Aeroflot airlines was covered in fire retardant foam

In this photo taken on Tuesday, April 30, 2019, the Sukhoi SSJ-100 aircraft of Aeroflot Airlines that made an emergency landing on Sunday, May 5, 2019 in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, takes off from the Siberian city of Tyumen, Russia

People wait at Sheremetyevo International Airport for news about passengers aboard the aircraft