An Airbus 310-300, owned by Novosibirsk-based S7, formerly Sibir, was making a routine flight from Moscow to the city of Irkutsk, about 3,000 miles east of the capital and the home airport for popular tourist destination Lake Baikal. The airliner veered off the runway on landing and burst into flames after hitting a concrete wall.
"At this point, 122 bodies have been found and six passengers are still unaccounted for," said Igor Levitin, who taken charge of a commission investigating the tragedy. "Fifty-seven people have been hospitalized; fifteen are foreigners."
S7 earlier reported that the plane had 203 people on board, including eight crew and three people that were not on the passenger list.
Speaking about an emergency landing of another S7 Airbus A-310 earlier on Monday, the minister said an investigation would be conducted with account of circumstances around the Siberia crash.
He refused to say whether Russia was planning to suspend flights of A-310 planes used by Russian air carriers.
"That is the responsibility of a different commission, not this state [investigation] commission," Levitin said.
The A-310 became the first Western-built aircraft to gain a Russian Type Certificate in 1991. S7, the second largest Russian carrier, operated seven A-310 aircraft before Sunday's tragedy.
