Metrojet Flight 9268 crash latest in long line of Russian aviation disasters

The crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 over Egypt on Saturday is the latest in a long history of Russian commercial aviation tragedies.

Saturday's crash, in which anAirbusA321-200brokeapart in mid-air,killing all 224people on board, is theworst Russian aviation disaster in history.

And itcomes afteryears of promises by the Russian government to improve air safety standards, which have repeatedly come under scrutinydue to a number ofhigh-profile crashes over the last several decades.

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With 360 accidents and7,298 fatalities since 1945,Russia is second only to the U.S. for fatal civil airliner disasters,according to the Aviation Safety Network.

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In June 2011,theInternational Air Transport Association, a trade association representing airlines around the world,praised Russia for the progress it hadmade in recent years to improve flight safety, noting the13 largest Russian carriers have all passed IATA'soperational safety audit.

But italso warned that "safety concerns remain with the continued operation of some Russian-built equipment that does not comply withICAO[International Civil Aviation Organization]standards."

In fact, the IATAsaysRussia and the former Soviet republics combined have the world's worst air-traffic safety records, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average in 2011.

Here's a look back at some of the country's worst crashes.

Aeroflot Flight 821

OnSept.14, 2008, anAeroflot Boeing 737-500crashedas it was preparing to land in central Russia, killing all 88 people aboard.

The jethad been travelling from Moscow tothe Ural Mountains city of Perm when it went down nearresidential buildings.

Russia's airline investigator, the InterstateAviation Committee, blamed the pilot for the tragedy, saying he was tired, confused and intoxicated.

The committee'sfinal report said Flight 821's captain"lost spatial orientation" after he misread an altitude indicator on the Boeing's instrument panel. It also said anunspecified amount of alcohol was detected in the pilot's body, and that he was overworked.

RusAir Tu-134

Alcohol and crew negligence were also blamed when aRusAirjet crashed in heavy fog and burst into flames on a highway in northwestern Russia on June 20, 2011,killing 44 people.

Eight people survived, dragged from the burning wreckage by locals.

The RusAir Tu-134 plane had taken off from Moscow and was moments from landing at the Petrozavodsk airport when it slammed into a nearby highway just before midnight.

An investigation found theaircraft's crew descended below minimum safe altitude in poor weather. What's more, the navigator, tasked with helping thethe pilot alignthe aircraft with the runway, was "mildly intoxicated."

LokomotivYaroslavl

Human error is also to blame for a 2011 crash that wiped out a Russian hockey team.

On Sept. 7, 2011, a Russian Yak-42 jet carrying the Kontinental Hockey League's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team crashed, killing 43 of 45 people on board, including Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon and former Vancouver Canucks star Pavol Demitra.

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"This is the darkest day in the history of our sport," ReneFasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said at the time.

An investigation determined the flight's crew were ill-trained and the crash was caused by thepilotacceleratingusing engine thrustwhileinadvertently applyingthe brakes.

A year later, a Kremlin investigation revealed the pilot had onlybeen granted permission to flybased on forged documents and that theco-pilothad not finished hisrequalificationexam.

UTair Flight 120

On April 2, 2012, a UTair passenger planedeparted from the Tyumenwithout having been properlyde-iced, thencrashed in a snowy field inSiberia shortly after taking off, killing 31 of the 43 people on board.

An investigation into the crash outlined a number of deficiencies in UTair's safety standards andand training practices, but pegged the blame on the crew's failure to have ice and snow removed from the aircraft, whichtilted to the right and and then sharply to the left as it crashed in near-freezing temperatures.

Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363

A Boeing 737 belonging toTatarstanAirlines crashed on Nov.17, 2013,while trying to land at the airport in the city of Kazan, killing all 50 people aboard.

Reports said the plane appeared to lose altitude as it was making a second landing attempt, crashing and catching fire.

Video captures plane crash

11 years ago

Duration 1:10

Tatarstan Airlines jet crashes at an almost vertical angle in Kazan, Russia. Video courtesy Emergencies Ministry/Russian Investigative Committee

A combination of pilot error and mechanical failure wasblamed for the crash.