Russian authorities said late on Sunday that 41 people died when a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash-landed at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport.
“There were 78 people on board, including crew members,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website.
“According to updated information, 37 out of them survived.”
Earlier on Sunday, the investigators said 13 people had been killed in the plane crash.
Videos on social media show passengers using emergency exit slides to escape the burning Aeroflot aircraft.
The Sukhoi Superjet-100 aircraft was scheduled to depart at 17:50 local time (14:50 GMT) for the city of Murmansk.
The crew issued a distress signal shortly after departure, Interfax reports.
Reports also suggest it did not succeed in its first emergency landing attempt.
Data from tracking website Flightradar24 appears to confirm reports the emergency landing happened about 30 minutes after take-off.
Aeroflot, Russia’s national carrier, said the plane was forced to return to the airport “for technical reasons”, but did not elaborate.
In a brief statement, the firm said the plane’s engines were burning after landing, but did not clarify the exact sequence of events.
Interfax quotes a source as saying the plane’s engines caught fire on the runway after a hard landing, not in mid-air as initially reported.
Reuters/BBC
