a2bluefan

September 7th, 2011 at 10:17 AM ^

Heard this speculation about Salei and McCrimmon on the radio this morning.  Wikipeida has deceased date of today listed for both of them (I went digging when none of the local news sites had anything).

So very sad...   thoughts and prayers to the families of all involved in this crash.

freernnur5

September 7th, 2011 at 11:46 AM ^

A Yahoo Sports article has the following:

It wasn’t immediately clear which players were on board the Yak-42. Officials said player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.

It also earlier states that there were 45 people on board and 43 died with 2 critically injured.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AjY8PeKpSL9.P8mAbrF4hnQ5nYcB?slug=ap-russia-crash

 

This is really sad to hear and my heart is out to the families of those that lost someone in the crash.

MaizeNBlu628

September 7th, 2011 at 10:41 AM ^

thoughts go out to all of their families and fans. I'm surprised this has not gotten all that coverage. Not that it matters, but supposedly they were one of the favorites to win the KHL this year as well.

translator82

September 7th, 2011 at 11:03 AM ^

Hockey and the NHL has endured so much this offseason with the suicides and deaths of Belak and the others and now this happens. I can't remember a worse offseason for the sport, excluding labor-related stuff. Keeping the players and their families in my thoughts and prayers.

a2bluefan

September 7th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^

UPDATE: NHL website says the following, as of 20 min ago:

There are unconfirmed reports, however, that Ruslan Salei, a veteran defenseman, was in Minsk, Belarus awaiting the arrival of the team. Salei makes his off-season home in Minsk.

Rico616

September 7th, 2011 at 11:32 AM ^

Wow thats crazy.

I like how your post was an hour and a half ago and Colin Cowherd says "this just across the wire" like 10 mins ago. Wow ESPN was late.

1464

September 7th, 2011 at 11:55 AM ^

This is very, very tragic.  On a side note, it is weird how a high profile crash like this actually conjures more emotion than if it were just a regular Russian commuter plane.  Even if McCrimmon and Salei were not on the plane, it would have hit home harder for me than if a random plane went down.

Locomotiv is actually a fairly well known team, as I am just an above average fan of hockey and have heard the name several times.

 

grsbmd

September 7th, 2011 at 12:28 PM ^

I don't think it's that weird.  As many of us are Wings fans, we feel like we knew McCrimmon and Salei in some way, even if that was just watching them do their job on TV 82+ times a year.

But I know what you're saying.  It's easier to dismiss a tragedy involving ordinary people with ordinary jobs than one affecting of high-profile athletes.

michfan6060

September 7th, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^

I don't really like ESPN that much, but you don't report this right away.I don't blame them at all for waiting a little. I mean just read this thread and see how many different stories there are.

dfetts

September 7th, 2011 at 2:28 PM ^

Belarus Hockey Federation and Russian Emergency Ministry confirm that Ruslan Salei has passed away. Some other scary information is that the plane the team was on was bared from EU airspace due to safety concerns.

Bronco648

September 7th, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^

It's unfortunate that aircraft maintenance isn't very good outside of North America and western Europe. But, that's just speculation on what caused the crash. It could have been a bird strike. The article did state the aircraft (Yak-42) broke into two pieces on take-off. That sounds like a structural failure. Very sad.

translator82

September 7th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^

I agree it is all speculation until the investigation is completed on what caused the crash. Personally, however, you could not pay me to fly on an Ilyushin, Yak, Tupelov or any other Soviet-era plane if I was traveling in that part of the world. Those aircraft have been poorly maintained over the years.

In two years, there have been three crashes involving Soviet-era planes. One of them killed the president of Poland and a high-ranking delegation from the country. Now we have an entire hockey team wiped out.