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 ...