Russia plane crash survivor demanded a REFUND after fireball horror as it’s claimed passengers ‘blocked victims’ escape to grab bags’
A PASSENGER spotted carrying a rucksack from a plane crash which left at least 41 dead in Russia later demanded a refund, it has been reported.
Dmitry Khlebushkin was identified in hours after he was pictured walking away from the scene of the disaster carrying his backpack and later tried to get the cost of his ticket back.
Screams of terror could be heard from the inside the cabin of the burning jet after it crash landed on Sunday evening in Moscow.
The images emerged amid unconfirmed reports some passengers blocked the escape of those trapped at the back of the burning plane by stopping to collect their overhead luggage.
Airline emergency rules clearly state passengers must leave all their baggage on board.
Khlebushkin had praised the stewardesses for help in evacuating the plane.
“It was dark, the temperature was high, they were pulling people out of there. They helped people to go down the slide,” he said.
But then he is reported to have told Life online news: “I failed to get a refund for my ticket for 40 minutes. And in the end I did not get it at all.”
Reports say only three passengers behind the passenger – who was reportedly sitting in seat 10C – managed to flee the plane.
REFUND DEMAND
It has not been confirmed whether or not Mr Khlebushkin was aware of the numbers in the rows behind him who perished.
Aviation online forum Forumavia posted: “On the video we see the first passenger jumping out taking four seconds.
“The second is that overweight man who was angry that he could not get a refund… from 10C seat. This is Dmitry Khlebushkin. He saved his backpack.
“And he is looking really great, knowing that everyone further back than the 11th row died.”
The severely charred remains of six men and one woman will be identified using DNA.
They were named as: Vitaly Velmakin, 40, Alexander Vitsnarovsky, Petr Kiselev, Albina Pilipchuk, Sergey Plotnikov, 46, Alexey Smirnov and Valentin Khomchenko.
Some passengers threw their bags down the slide as others were burning to death at the rear of the plane.
One comment stated: “The first passengers tried to throw out their bags from the cabin and then to slide down. This is why there are delays.”
Earlier it was revealed how a hero stewardess pushed passengers out of a burning plane while escape routes were blocked by people grabbing luggage from overhead lockers, it’s been reported.
Harrowing footage shows flames licking at the plane’s windows as it was engulfed in a huge fireball.
Other footage appears to show the rear of the jet consumed by flames even before the crash landing at Sheremetyevo airport juts 28 minutes after takeoff.
Desperate passengers were filmed escaping down emergency chutes and sprinting away, some holding their luggage – as officials claimed the evacuation was hindered by those stopping to grab their bags.
Stewardess Tatyana Kasatkina, 34, revealed how she kicked the plane’s door open and physically pushed passengers out onto the emergency slide to safety.
“When the plane stopped, the evacuation immediately began,” she said.
“Everyone was shouting that we were on fire. But there was no fire inside the cabin at this moment.
“I kicked the door out with my leg and pushed out the passengers so as not to slow the evacuation.
“Just to hurry them up I grabbed each of them by the collar from the back.”
The emotional stewardess added: “It was all so quick. The smoke was already black. The last people were crawling to get out.
“Everyone had jumped from their seats and moved forwards, although the plane was still moving at a good speed.
“I saw the first woman calling somebody on her phone and saying – ‘we are on fire, we are falling down’.”
The youngest fatality in the Moscow air tragedy was Sofia Novikova, 12, who died alongside her doctor father, 40-year-oldEvgeny Novikov.
The pair had been on holiday together when they perished in the Sukhoi Superjet inferno.
Sofia had called her mother, Ksenia Novikova, 34, an English language teacher, to say: “Mum, we’re taking off.”
When she heard about the crash on TV, Ksenia rushed to the airport in the family’s home city of Murmansk where she learned that her daughter and husband had both died.
Also killed was Alyona Martynova, a senior official with Murmansk regional government.
Footage showing survivors emerging carrying bags and coats shows how passengers “cost lives” because those stranded at the rear of the plane could not get out, said unnamed experts cited by Vesti.ru.
The rear emergency doors were not accessible because of the blaze.
Survivors have praised the heroic cabin crew rescued them from the flaming wreckage.
Dmitry Khlebnikov said: “I thank God – and the stewardesses who saved me.
“They were always with us, helping people to climb the slide and get out of the cabin full of smoke. It was dark and incredibly hot inside.”
Investigators are understood to be examining all possible causes of the tragedy including the theory that the plane was hit by lightning.
“There were 78 people on board, including [five] crew members,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement. “According to updated information, 37 out of them survived.”
Flight attendant Maxim Moiseev was said to have been killed while saving his passengers from the blaze, REN TV reported.
The aircraft made an emergency landing at around 6.40pm Moscow time on Sunday after bursting into flames mid-air
One passenger revealed: “I was sitting in front of the engine, and saw how everything melted.
“Somehow I managed to reach the exit, inhaling carbon monoxide.
“The flight attendants said: Come on, quickly, crawl, a little bit left until the exit. As a result, I managed to jump off the plane.”
Passenger Pyotr Egorov described the plane jumping like a “grasshopper” as it touched down.
“We took off and then lightning struck the plane,” he said.
“The plane turned back and there was a hard landing. We were so scared we almost lost consciousness.
“The plane jumped down the landing strip like a grasshopper and then caught fire on the ground.”
The two-year-old Sukhoi Superjet was forced to make the landing shortly after taking off for the Arctic city of Murmansk at 6.03pm local time.
A distress signal was issued before the radio connection failed just minutes into the flight.
Witnesses filmed the rear of the plane engulfed in flames and black smoke as it touched down at the airport and sped along the runway ablaze.
The plane jumped down the landing strip like a grasshopper and then caught fire on the ground
Pyotr Egorov
Aeroflot said the plane turned back for unspecified technical reasons and made a hard landing that started the fire.
One source said the emergency landing was so hard that debris had found its way into the engines, sparking a fire that swiftly engulfed the rear of the fuselage.
The plane’s flight recorder shows the aircraft was hit lightning soon after taking off for Murmansk from Moscow.
This disabled the automatic controls on board and cut communications with the ground.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee announced that an investigation into the fire would begin soon.
The plane’s chief pilot has been named as Denis Evdokimov and the co-pilot Maxim Kuznetsov.
Tatiana Kasatkina and Ksenia Vogel were also among the crew members.
Evdokimov said: “We lost radio communication because of a lightning strike. We did not have radio communications during landing.
We were so scared we almost lost consciousness
Survivor Pyotr Egorov
“We managed to resume it via an emergency frequency but it was abrupt and short. We managed to say a few words and lost it. And we had to connect it again.
“Air traffic control did help us, they guided us to the runway. The speed was not high, but normal for landing.
“Everything was according to the book. We gently approached the ground, slowing down.
“After a complete stop we ordered emergency evacuation. At first I did not glance outside.
“When I did, I saw a fire engine. The fire began after landing. We were not on fire when in the air.”
Footage emerged today of a ground team at Sheremetyevo laughing at the stricken plane as it landed in flames.
Comments ranged from it being a “landing with a bang” to “if it landed like this then it means people [are] injured on board.”
Russian news agencies reported that the plane had been made in 2017 and had been serviced as recently as April of this year.
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The SSJ100, also known as the Superjet, is a two-engine regional jet put into service in 2011 with considerable fanfare as a signal that Russia’s troubled aerospace industry was on the rise.
The plane is largely used in Russia but also is used by airlines in other countries, including Armenia and Mexico.
This is the second fatal accident involving the plane.
In 2012, a demonstration flight in Indonesia struck a mountain, killing all 45 aboard.
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