After circling a southern Russian airport for more than two hours because of high ground-level winds and poor visibility, a passenger jet from the United Arab Emirates crashed during a landing attempt, killing all 62 people aboard.
The flydubai Boeing 737 took off from Dubai and was scheduled to land at the Rostov-on-Don airport at 1:20 a.m. Saturday (6:20 p.m. ET Friday), Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.But it didn't come down -- about 800 feet from a runway -- until 3:50 a.m. By that point, Russian state media reported, there were winds of about 60 mph.
Authorities have ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash. Instead, according to investigative committee spokeswoman Oksana Kovrizhnaya, they will be looking at three possibilities: technical issues, severe weather and human error.
Kovrizhnaya said the investigations will take at least two months, as required by Russian law, but "could be prolonged," according to state-run Sputnik news.
