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Russian Times: Top KHL team killed in passenger plane crash


HBnotBlades

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http://rt.com/news/passenger-plane-russia-reports-005/

Thirty-six people have died in a Yakovlev Yak-42 passenger plane crash near the city of Yaroslavl in Central Russia. The majority of victims were members of the local ice hockey team Lokomotiv.

The plane went down and caught fire shortly after taking to the air. Preliminary reports say it had insufficient lift and hit a beacon tower. The crash site is between 500 and 1,000 meters from the runway, according to different reports.

The Yak-42 was on its way to the Belarusian capital Minsk and had 37 people on board, aviation authorities reported. The aircraft’s maximum capacity is 120 passengers and crew.

Several of the victims were foreign players for the club. The squad includes players from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden.

For those who don't know, the KHL is the second biggest hockey league in the world and Locomotiv is one of the highest spending and highest profile teams. They had quite a number of ex-NHL players, NHL prospects and the Swedish national team goalie on their roster. The were on their way to play the season opener.

According to reports 1 crew member survived, but none of the team members did. :(

Not a good offseason for the hockey world.

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Was about to post this, most notable player sports fans should recognize is Pavol Demitra, who played 10+ seasons in the NHL.

Very unfortunate.

Yeah, I saw his name on their roster and immediately recognized it. was a 20+ goal scorer every year except for his first (only 8 games), his last (only 28 games), and his 3rd to last.

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Russostrib Michael Russo

RT @dchesnokov: Lokomotiv official tells Sovetsky Sport "everyone from the main roster was on the plane + 4 players from the youth team."

:(

My condolences go out to all the family and friends of those on the team.

I'm sure many of the Caps were close to the guys on Locomotiv, it was the team that Varlamov would have played for if he returned to the KHL.

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Unbelievable and infuriating...

The charter plane carrying almost the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team took off in perfect weather this morning, had trouble gaining altitude, clipped a radar tower and crashed 1.5 miles from the airport. It's the exact same plane that had been banned two years ago by aviation authorities from flying to Europe because it did not meet any of the international standards for safety.

http://deadspin.com/5838024/doomed-lokomotiv-yaroslavl-plane-was-banned-in-europe-due-to-safety-concerns

I'm really at a loss for words. RIP...such a sad day not only in hockey, but sports in general.

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I heard that caps former goalie Varlomiv (spelling)...would of been assigned to that team and would of therefore been on the plane if he had decided to go back to Russia. He owes GMGM and the entire Caps organization a big "Thank you" for trading his rights to Colorado. Wow thats scary.

Yup, they were Varlamov's old team and they still had his rights. He played with a lot of those guys before coming to the NHL.

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