Charges Filed 1-Year After Tragic Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Plane Crash

A former executive of Yak Service Airlines has been charged in connection with the plane crash that killed the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team last September. Vadim Timofeev is accused of violating the rules of air traffic safety and air transport operation, according to Investigative Committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin, who told RIA-Novosti. Investigators said Timofeev was in charge of flight operations at Yak Service, with control of the pilots’ qualification being his direct responsibility. The crew was supposedly unqualified.

The Yak-42 aircraft carrying the KHL side Lokomotiv crashed just a few minutes after taking off from Yaroslavl airport on Sept. 7, 2011.

The Interstate Aviation Committee ruled that the September 7 plane crash that killed 44 people, including 36 players, coaches and staff of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League, was caused by pilot error, Vladimir Isachenkov of the Associated Press reports.

In addition to citing lax oversight and insufficient crew training, the investigation discovered that one of the two pilots of the Yak 42 plane accidentally activated the brakes and yanked the control to his chest, which pulled the plane up sharply during take off.

As if the story of the KHL plane crash earlier this month in Russia wasn’t depressing and heartbreaking enough, we learned Wednesday just how wonderful a man one of the victims, Lokomotiv hockey player Ivan Tkachenko, really was.

More heartbreaking detail, if you can handle it, at Russia Today.

Alexander Galimov was one of just two survivors of Wednesday’s tragic plane crash in Russia. He is no longer a survivor. After a courageous battle, Galimov succumbed to burns suffered in the crash, which had covered 90 percent of his body. He was 26 years old.

Galimov was the lone surviving player of the initial crash, which including him claimed 44 people. The entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team perished in the crash. Galimov had been transported from Yaroslavl, the site of the crash, to a hospital in Moscow to receive special care in an attempt to save his life.

Earlier reports had suggested that the KHL had made contingent plans for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl to restart their 2011-2012 season after the tragic plane crash that had taken the lives of the entire team and coaching staff. Even with those plans in place, team President Yuri Yakovlev has reiterated the team’s position that the team will not play the 2011-2012 season.

These comments come as the memorial services for the 25 players and 11 staff members go on at the team’s arena in Yaroslavl. Reports say that between 25,000 and 40,000 people showed to pay their respects for the deceased.

It seems impossible to fathom, but at some point this year, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl will take to the ice and play KHL hockey games. We don’t know exactly who will make up the roster, although several players from other KHL teams have apparently volunteered to switch teams.

Puck Worlds, SB Nation’s international hockey blog, has more details:

If you’re not in the mood to cry, don’t click this link, because this is the saddest account of Wednesday’s plane crash that you’re likely to read. It brings fully into perspective the loss that the family of each victim is feeling in the aftermath of the tragedy.

via Flickr

Wednesday, the hockey and sports world continued to try and make sense of the horrific plane crash that claimed the lives of an entire hockey team just outside of Yaroslavl, Russia.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement on behalf of the league and its players to the KHL.

The Kontinental Hockey League does not yet know how they will proceed with the 2011-12 season in the wake of a horrific plane crash that claimed the lives of an entire hockey team on Wednesday just outside of Yaroslavl, Russia.

They’ve released a statement regarding the tragedy, which appears in full below:

A plane carrying the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team crashed just after take off on Wednesday, killing all but two of those on board. Several former NHL players are among the dead, and this is just the latest tragedy to strike the hockey world in what’s been a long summer of heartbreak.

In total, 37 passengers and eight crew were reportedly aboard the plane, including the entire hockey team and four members of the Lokomotiv youth squad.

The tragic plane crash in Russia on Wednesday has claimed the lives of the majority of the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey club, as has been confirmed by various news sources. Reports vary on the exact death toll, but the Associated Press has reported that at least 43 are dead.

According to the AP, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry claimed the plane was carrying 45 people -- 37 passengers and eight crew -- and that just two people survived the crash. One survivor is a flight engineer whose name has not been made public. The other is a player on the hockey team, but his outlook does not look good.

We don’t yet officially know exactly who was on the plane that crashed outside Yaroslavl, Russia this Wednesday, but we do know that the plane was carrying almost the entire Lokomotiv hockey team, and there are reports that the majority of those on board have died in the crash. The team was traveling to Minsk for the first game of their season, but the plane crashed on take off.

According to Sovietsky Sport and Dmirty Chesnokov, a Lokomotiv team official said that the entire team was on the plane, plus four members of the youth team. Other reports are saying that, according to authorities on the ground, 42 people were on board the plane and only two survived.