Plane crash claims 31

Television footage showed the UTair airlines ATR 72, which had snapped in two, lying in a snowy field with only the tail and rear visible. Emergency workers sifted through the wreckage and cleared away the snow. An investigative committee said the most likely cause of the crash was a technical malfunction as the 21-year-old twin-engine, turbo-prop plane carried its four crew and 39 passengers on a flight to the oil town of Surgut. Surgutneftegas, Russia’s fourth-largest oil company, said in a statement that it had lost some employees in the crash but did not say how many and did not name them. —  Reuters.