'All
possible causes explored' after Russian plane crash kills 71

Among them
are weather conditions, human error and the plane's technical condition.

Russian
investigators at the scene of a deadly plane crash near Moscow said on Sunday
they were exploring all possible causes.

Among them
are weather conditions, human error and the plane's technical condition.

The
passenger plane crashed near Moscow soon after take-off on Sunday, killing all
71 people on board, authorities said.

No distress
signals had been received from the crew.

Temperatures
were around minus 5 degrees Celsius when the short-haul AN-148 operated by
Saratov Airlines took off for the city of Orsk near the border with Kazakhstan,
about 1,500 km southeast of the capital.

It
reportedly disappeared from radar screens just minutes after taking off from
Moscow's Domodedovo airport.

A
spokeswoman for Saratov Airlines said there had been no concerns about the
state of the plane, which was manufactured in 2010 and went into service with
the airline in 2016.

The plane
was carrying 65 passengers and six crew. Investigators said debris and human
remains were spread over a radius of one kilometre from the crash site.

TV images
of the crash site showed wreckage of the plane, including at least one engine,
lying in fields covered with snow.

Helicopters
were at the scene as well as rescuers on snowmobiles. An official of the
Emergency Situations Ministry said two bodies and a flight recorder had been
found.

Interfax
news agency said one Swiss national had been among the passengers.

President
Vladimir Putin offered condolences to those who had lost relatives and ordered
a special investigative commission to be set up to probe the crash.

Local media
website Ural56.ru in the Orenburg region showed footage of distressed relatives
at Orsk airport. The city's mayor told the Rossiya 24 TV channel a team of
psychologists had been deployed there to comfort them.