A RUSSIAN PASSENGER airliner crashed this evening while trying to land at the airport in the city of Kazan, killing all 50 people aboard, officials said.

The Boeing 737 belonging to Tatarstan Airlines crashed about 7.20 p.m. local time (15.20pm GMT). There were no immediate indications of the cause.

Catching fire

Reports said the plane appeared to lose altitude as it was making a second landing attempt, crashing and catching fire.

Kazan, a city of about 1.1 million and the capital of the Tatarstan republic, is about 720 kilometers (450 miles) east of Moscow, where the flight originated. Weather in Kazan was reported to be light precipitation and winds of about 18 miles per hour.

A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry, Irina Rossius, said there were 44 passengers and six crew members aboard and all had been killed.

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