The Tupolev (TU-154) airliner en route to Moscow was on Tuesday forced to glide down from its cruising altitude with no working navigation gear and at a high speed after its wing flaps failed.
The 72 passengers, including three children, and nine crew members were in shock but unhurt after the pilot guided his plane down onto the defunct runway, overgrown with weeds, TV images showed.
“After its electrical equipment failed, the crew was forced to land the plane. The landing was manual, without radio contact,” the general prosecutors’ office said. Forced down at the tiny air strip built for helicopter use, the plane overshot the tarmac, tearing through 200 metres of forest brush before coming to rest.