Prosecutors Launch Safety Probe of Aeroflot

Russian prosecutors on Sept. 16 said they would conduct a flight safety inquiry on Aeroflot following a crash that killed all 88 people onboard, the prosecutor general's office said. Prosecutors will "carry out checks on the implementation of air safety regulation by Aeroflot,” the office said in a statement. Transport prosecutors will check on compliance with "flight safety by Aeroflot and its subsidiaries, as well as take measures to prevent breaches threatening air transport safety." Russian investigators on Monday sifted through the wreckage of the Aeroflot jet that crashed in the Ural Mountains. The Boeing-737 plane operated by the Aeroflot Nord subsidiary crashed Sept. 14 as it attempted to land in Perm.  An engine fire appears to have caused the crash of the airliner, according to the investigators. The right engine of the Boeing 737-500 apparently caught fire as the plane was preparing to land, said the chief of Russia's federal Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, who is in charge of the crash probe. Flight 821, which had departed Moscow, carried 82 passengers and six crew members, Aeroflot said. The crash was the second involving a Boeing 737 in the former Soviet Union in the past month. A Boeing flying from the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan to Iran crashed shortly after takeoff Aug. 24, killing 64 of the 90 people on board.