Alarming engine fire hits plane carrying oil workers as passenger films the emergency

By The Siberian Times reporter

01 October 2017

All on board safe after An-148 jet returns to Talakan Airport soon after takeoff.

'I thought I was an atheist, and then I just started praying'. Picture: Anatoly Annaev

The nightmare scene was shot by a passenger on the Angara Airlines flight from Talakan to Irkutsk. The right side engine on aircraft is seen with flames shooting out of it.

A passenger said: 'I thought I was an atheist, and then I just started praying'.

On board were oil workers from the Talakan oil field in Yakutia, also called the Sakha Republic.

Burning engine

The nightmare scene was shot by a passenger on the Angara Airlines flight from Talakan to Irkutsk. Pictures: Anatoly Annaev

The plane too off without incident from Talakan airport, the first and only aerodrome in Russian built solely by a private company Surgutneftegaz.

It was bound for Irkutsk when passengers noticed the engine was on fire.

The pilot requested to return to the airport, and made a successful emergency landing.

Talakan airport

Talakan airport, the first and only aerodrome in Russian built solely by a private company. Picture: Esosedi

An investigation has been opened into the failure of the engine on the Antonov plane which can seat up to 85 passengers.

The high-wing monoplane has a maximum range of 4,400 km (2,700 miles).

Passengers from the stricken plane were flown to Irkutsk later the same day in a back-up aircraft.

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Good to see Russian pilots and crew handle this so expertly and professionally. Having flown in a bush plane that has had total engine failure up North at 60 deg latitude. We had to glide in to a hard landing on a river, barely made it. I know the feeling when the engine shut off and go quiet and all you hear is the wind. Smart Russian pilots to shut the fuel off to the engine so quickly. Heroic. Bravo. Expert flying.

Michael Director, Los Angeles, USA

17/10/2017 16:35

Some people in America are not the sweetest cookie in the box nor the brightest star in the universe so some of their ideas express this fact completely Pray if you like and may the hate expressed and the sureness of their opinions be disregarded by all who feel differently I am only pleased to read that all were safe regardless of how they believe and figure after visiting Russia on three occasions that you are an amazing group of people who made my visits all wonderful

Patricia gothard, Laguna Woods, CA USA

08/10/2017 11:47

So if I pray for Donald Trump to have a debilitating heart attack or stroke, it won't happen?

Mark Gorney, Berkeley, USA

04/10/2017 13:44

"A passenger said: 'I thought I was an atheist, and then I just started praying'."

Prayer has been proven not to work. You can pray all you want, but trust me - no god is listening.

Ian Cooper, Silver Spring, USA

01/10/2017 22:16