MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti) – Relatives of six Russian hockey players killed in a 2011 plane crash are seeking 105 million rubles ($3 million) in compensation for moral and financial damages, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said Friday.
The Yak-42 plane was carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team from its home base to Belarus, where the team was to play against Dynamo Minsk, when it crashed, killing almost everybody onboard.
Of the 45 people on the plane, who included 37 passengers and eight flight crew members, only a flight engineer survived. The crash was blamed on pilot error.
The claimants in the case are seeking compensation for moral damages, insurance payments, burial expenses, property damage and survivors’ benefits from Yak Service, the charter company operating the flight, and insurance firms.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, founded in 1949 as the team of the Railways Ministry, is one of Russia's leading hockey teams and was a runner-up in the nascent KHL in 2008 and 2009. In 1997, it took the Russian Superleague title and won back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003.
