MOSCOW — A Russian passenger jet carrying 124 people caught fire as it taxied down a snowy runway in Siberia and then exploded Saturday, killing three people and injuring 43, including six who were badly burned, officials said.
Most of the passengers and crew were evacuated before the explosion, though people on board described a chaotic scene as the burning plane filled with thick, black smoke and panicked passengers climbed over one another through flames to escape.
Emergency services spokesman Vadim Grebennikov said the fire, which began in one of the three rear-mounted engines as the plane taxied for takeoff, caused a powerful blast that destroyed the Tu-154 aircraft.
Russian television showed video taken with a mobile telephone of the burning plane, its center a giant fireball. All that remained afterward was the tail section and part of a wing.
Grebennikov said 10 people were seriously injured, including six who were badly burned and four who suffered broken bones or other trauma. Most of the other injured passengers sought treatment for poisoning after inhaling toxic fumes from burning plastic.
The plane, which belonged to the regional Kogalymavia airline, was to fly from the western Siberian town of Surgut to Moscow.
Just last month, two people were killed and 83 injured when two engines failed on a Tu-154 taking off from a Moscow airport. It skidded off the snowy runway and broke apart.
