Russia grieves over the killings of ice-hockey team in Plane Crash
Published by Julia Volkovah under Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team, Russia, Volga River on 2:17 AM
Candles flickered nearby mounds of red carnations at the stadium of one of Russia's highest ice hockey teams on Thursday after approximately the entire team was devastated in a plane crash that executed 43 people.
Fanatics and players throughout the worldwide paid compliment to the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team, the day after the Soviet-designed Yak-42 passenger plane crashed into a river bank just outside Yaroslavl, 250 km (150 miles) north of Moscow.
Several supporters gathered to the stadium immediately after the crash incident and left team scarves as well as flowers alongside the stadium wall. Some were in tears. Others chanted the names of the players before going home late on Wednesday evening.
"Tears on the ice," Russia's well known Tvoi Den newspaper said on its front page headline under a photo of the team on the ice. "Yet another dreadful air crash has traumatized Russia," it said.
Dmitry Medvedev Russian President, who was due to address on Thursday at a political gathering held at the club's stadium, expressed great concerns to the families of the casualties.
"Lokomotiv supporters are broken heartening the entire country is grieving," said Medvedev, who was anticipated to visit the crash’s incident area.
Condolences also dispensed from the whole world after the crash, which raised worries about the security of Russia's elderly fleet of passenger planes.
International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel dispatched his sympathies from the international ice hockey community and Russia's Kommersant-FM radio station said players from other hockey squads were offering to assistance re-establishing the team.
Just one of the 37 players and team officers on board endured the catastrophe, reviving memories of a plane crash in 1958 which executed several of English soccer club Manchester United's players.
Tragedy employees referred by Russian news agencies said they were still searching the waters of the Volga River where the plane collapsed.
Two people stay alive but were in a too severe condition.
The player who survived was offenseman Alexander Galimov, who hospital doctors said had burns over 90 percent of his body. The other survivor, one of the eight squads on board, were also in dangerous condition.
Lokomotiv's squad comprises players and coaches from many countries -- amid them Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany and Canada.
Spectators including fishermen on the Volga River said they heard heavy blasts as the plane devastated into the ground, bursting into flames, immediately after take off.
Russian prosecutors said they considered the crash was due to either by defective equipment or pilot blunder, though weather conditions were tremendous.
The team has been on its way to a match in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
