A Summer to Forget

While the NHL and Pittsburg Penguins were broadcasting a press conference on the current health status of Sidney Crosby, the rest of the world was focused on the tragic plane crash in St. Petersburg, Russia that took the lives of almost all of the passengers aboard the charter flight of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Hockey club.  The team was flying to Belarus to face a Minsk club in the 2011 KHL season opener.

According to reports, “The plane apparently struggled to gain altitude and then hit a signal tower before breaking apart along the Volga River near Yaroslavl, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow.”  The crash left 43 people dead.

 It has been reported that all but 2 of the passengers have been killed.  An unidentified crewman and player, Alexander Galimov, said to be in critical condition, suffering burns to over 80% of his body.  (Update:  Has since passed away from injuries sustained in crash)

International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel called the crash "a terrible tragedy for the global ice hockey community with so many nationalities involved."

Head Coach, Brad McCrimmon, an ex-Islanders assistant coach and Ex-Islanders’ players, Josef Vasicek and Alex Karpovtsev, who was an assistant coach for the team were among those killed in the crash.

Russia's Sov Sport website stated that the entire main roster of the team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was on the plane, along with four players from the youth program. 

Eric Hornick posted an article from Deadspin.com, that revealed the Plane involved in the crash, tail designation RA-42433 was banned in Europe due to safety concerns in 2009. It states the chartered plane was cited for failing to meet the international standards for safety.  The investigation concluded, “These aircraft were not equipped to perform international flights as per ICAO standards (not equipped with TAWS/E-GPWS) and their certificate of airworthiness had expired and had not been renewed.”  The Russian Federation had agreed to bring the aircraft in compliance with international standards.

“All planes owned by charter company YAK Service have been prohibited from flying to countries within the European community, which does not include Belarus, today's destination.”  The article also stated, “Currently Russia and the former Soviet States have the world's worst air safety record, with 13 times more incidents than the international average.”

Passenger list:

1.Vitaly Anikeyenko
2.Yury Bakhvalov
3.Aleksandr Belyayev
4.Mikhail Balandin
5.Aleksandr Vasyunov
6.Josef Vasicek
7.Aleksandr Vyukhin
8.Aleksandr Galimov – in critical condition
9.Robert Dietrich
10.Pavol Demitra
11.Andrei Zimin
12.Marat Kalimulin
13.Aleksandr Karpovtsev
14.Aleksandr Kalyanin
15.Andrei Kiryukhin
16.Nikita Klyukin
17.Igor Korolyov
18.Nikolai Krivonosov
19.Yevgeny Kunnov
20.Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
21.Stefan Liv
22.Jan Marek
23.Brad McCrimmon
24.Sergey Ostapchuk
25.Vladimir Piskunov
26.Karel Rachunek
27.Evgeny Sidorov
28.Karlis Skrastins
29.Ruslan Saley
30.Pavel Snurnitsyn
31.Daniil Sobchenko
32.Ivan Tkachenko
33.Pavel Trakhanov
34.Igor Urychev
35.Gennady Churilov
36.Maksim Shuvalov
37.Artyom Yarchuk

Although its been a summer to forget, we should remember those worth remembering.

We will keep you in our thoughts. 

Rest in Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emqug0_8AFU&feature=youtu.be