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| Russia Saratov crash: Ice on sensors 'may be cause' | Russia Saratov crash: Ice on sensors 'may be cause' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Speed sensors that were iced over may have caused a passenger jet to crash near Moscow, killing all 71 people on board, investigators say. | Speed sensors that were iced over may have caused a passenger jet to crash near Moscow, killing all 71 people on board, investigators say. |
| The faulty instruments could have given the pilots wrong speed data, Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said. | |
| The Saratov Airlines jet went down minutes after take-off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Sunday. | The Saratov Airlines jet went down minutes after take-off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Sunday. |
| No emergency call came from the plane. The Antonov An-148 was en route to Orsk in the Ural mountains. | No emergency call came from the plane. The Antonov An-148 was en route to Orsk in the Ural mountains. |
| What are the investigators saying? | |
| A preliminary analysis of the information in the flight recorder indicated that a "special situation" began to develop two and a half minutes after the plane took off, at an altitude of around 1,300m (4,265ft), the committee said, according to Tass news agency. | |
| The speed indicated was 465-470km/h (289-292mph). At that moment, it added, there were divergences between the readings of the speed sensors. | |
| Iced-over speed sensors, known as Pitots, were cited as the likely reason for a 2009 Air France plane crash, which killed 228 people. | |
| What do we know so far? | What do we know so far? |
| Contact was lost minutes after the plane took off at 14:27 (11:27 GMT) on Sunday. | Contact was lost minutes after the plane took off at 14:27 (11:27 GMT) on Sunday. |
| Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said it then descended at the rate of 1,000m (3,300ft) per minute. | Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said it then descended at the rate of 1,000m (3,300ft) per minute. |
| The jet, which was reportedly seven years old, was being flown by an experienced pilot who had 5,000 hours of flying time, the airline told Ria-Novosti news agency. | The jet, which was reportedly seven years old, was being flown by an experienced pilot who had 5,000 hours of flying time, the airline told Ria-Novosti news agency. |
| More than 700 people are involved in the search operation, struggling through deep snow. | |
| The emergencies ministry is collecting DNA samples from victims' relatives as part of the identification process. |