Steven&co - Estonian tales

Boum-boum-aeroplane in Armenia - fortunately carrying limited consequences...

Plane crashes in Armenian capital

Ten people were hospitalised with injuries [EPA]

A plane carrying 21 people has crashed on takeoff from Yerevan, Armenia's capital, injuring at least 10 people, the head of the country's civil aviation authority has said.

The plane, a Canadair CRJ-100, was heading for Minsk, Belarus, when it flipped over on the runway at Zvartnots airport early on Thursday, Avtiom Movsesian said.

The plane burst into flames and ten people were hospitalised with injuries.

Gevorg Abramian, a spokesman for the airport, said none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

He said there were 18 passengers and three crew members aboard.
The plane belonged to Belavia, Belarus' state airline.

After the crash, it lay upside-down at the airport, much of the fuselage blackened and gutted by fire.

Source (article and picture): Al Jazeera (Who else has decent coverage on this part of the world?)

The educational aspect:

• Avoid the destination country and origin state of the plane, Belarus. As if I needed a crash to make that decision.
• Be even more suspicious when it concerns planes manufactured by Bombardier - it is not the first time something is amiss with planes from these people. Granted, it concerns a different type of aircraft as taken out of flight by SAS, but as all educated Belgians know: "trop is teveel" when you are talking about coincidence. (If you are not Belgian, don't worry about not understanding the pun. We would need at least a cosy evening and some glasses of Duvel to explain the whole thing to you - just mention the name from the article should you find yourself in Brussels and bored one day.)
  
• Next time I'm in Yerevan airport: look out for burn marks on the tarmac.
  

A few years of experience have served me well, and have kept me out of situations where all control is lost ...

Monday is pancake-day.

On Mondays, after the afternoon snack, I pick Joonas up from school and we head to what is euphemistically called art class. Art is relative - most of the time we mess around with paint, flower, dried leaves, glue and soap bubbles, accompanied by some nice songs and playtime. Depending on the age of the artists, part of the output gets eaten, something which is luckily taken into account when choosing the materials.

Joonas loves going, mostly because the teacher every time succeeds in introducing a theme and in making it fun for all ages. Not that he displays any apparent artistic talent, but the nice coloured stains on his (and mine) clothes sure make everything nice and joyful.

After this "fine mess" it is time for pancakes. In recent weeks, Maria (Gerli's daughter) joins us, to eat and play. Two rascals with character, but it certainly livens up the place :-)