MOSCOW — The only member of a top Russian hockey team to survive a plane crash that killed 44 people died Monday of his injuries, a final bitter blow to all those who mourned the team’s loss.
The Vishnevsky hospital said 26-year-old Alexander Galimov died of the severe burns that covered about 90 percent of his body, despite the best efforts of doctors in its burn unit, considered one of the best in Russia.
The crash Wednesday of a chartered Yak-42 jet outside the western city of Yaroslavl took the lives of 28 players, two coaches and seven other staff members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey club.
The only other person to survive, flight crew member Alexander Sizov, remained in intensive care at Moscow’s Sklifosovsky hospital.
Unlike many other members of Lokomotiv who were European Union citizens and once played in the NHL, Galimov was a native of Yaroslavl and a product of its youth program. His initial survival had inspired the entire city, where the team was a source of great pride.
At rallies after the crash, fans chanted “Galimov, live for the whole team!” and other slogans dedicated to him.
“All of Yaroslavl, all of the country, all of the world followed the doctors’ words, believing, hoping, praying that he would defeat death and remain with us,” Yaroslavl Gov. Sergei Vakhrukov said Monday.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presided over a meeting to decide the future of Lokomotiv Yaroslav.
The team decided to pull out of the Kontinental Hockey League for a year while it rebuilds, but will bring up players from its farm system and compete in a lower league starting in December.
“We can’t leave the city without hockey,” said Vsevolod Kukushkin, an adviser to the KHL. “It’s a hockey city.”
