KIEV, Aug 22: A Russian airliner with 170 passengers and crew on board crashed on Tuesday in eastern Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. The reason for the crash was not immediately clear but Interfax news agency quoted the head of Russia’s air traffic control service saying the plane went down after entering an area of severe air turbulence.

Another official said that a fire had broken out aboard shortly before the Tupolev 154 plunged to the ground.

“A Tupolev 154 flying from Anapa to Saint Petersburg sent a distress signal at 3:37pm,” a spokeswoman for Russia’s emergency situations ministry told AFP in Moscow. “At 3:39 it disappeared from radar screens.”

The jet crashed 45 km north of Donetsk, which is located in eastern Ukraine, she said.

Igor Krol, spokesman for Ukraine’s emergency situations ministry also confirmed the plane had gone down.—AFP