Russia

Five Passengers Sustain Moderate Wounds, 2 Hospitalised After Boeing 737 Evacuated at Moscow Airport

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A Boeing 737 plane belonging to Russia's Nordwind Airlines cancelled its takeoff from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport after a sensor went off indicating that there was smoke inside the cockpit, the Moscow Region branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said Friday.
Sputnik

According to airport authorities, five passengers sustained moderate wounds during the evacuation, while two were hospitalised.

A special commission to probe incident has been formed, according to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency.

"While the aircraft was taxiing toward the apron, a signal about smoke detected inside the cockpit was received [...] The aircraft stopped and passengers were evacuated via inflatable slides and taken to the terminal F of the airport", a spokesperson for the ministry said.

The Emergencies Ministry said that all of the 187 people on board were promptly evacuated from the aircraft.

Later on Friday, a spokesperson for Sheremetyevo International Airport said that 28 people had refused to take a backup flight to Armenia.

Eight people sustained injuries during an evacuation from a Yerevan-bound flight at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, the press service chief of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's Moscow Region branch said, changing the authorities' initial assessment.

The ministry earlier said that a Boeing 737 plane belonging to the Russian carrier, Nordwind Airlines, had cancelled its takeoff from the airport after a sensor went off indicating there was smoke inside the cockpit. Passengers were evacuated via inflatable slides, with three receiving minor bumps and bruises, the authorities said.

In May, an SSJ100, bound for the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk, caught fire upon making an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport following an on-board electronics failure that it experienced less than 30 minutes after take-off. The accident saw 41 of the 78 people aboard killed.

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