Of the 203 passengers on board - 127 are dead, 66 injured, and
20 of the survivors are in critical condition. This is the
aftermath of the A-310 plane crash in Siberian city of Irkutsk.
According to the government officials, families of the victims
will receive $3,000 compensation: 50% paid by Siberian Airlines,
12% by the airline's insurance company, 15% from the city of
Irkutsk, and the rest from the federal government. Sadly, that
is all the parents of dozens of schoolchildren killed in the
crash will likely ever receive. The kids were on their way to
summer camp at Lake Baikal. The only two possible explanations
for this tragedy are 1) pilot error or 2) equipment
malfunctioning. The pilots on this flight had an excellent
record, they had logged over 20,000 hours of flying without
incident in their careers. Even though the runway was wet after
light rains, it seems unlikely that both skilled pilots would
have lost control of the airplane due to the wet conditions. One
of the most unsettling details about t