Ex -Canuck Pavol Demitra's hockey team on crashed Russian plane, 36 dead agencies, aviation, carrying, official

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Ex-Canuck Pavol Demitra's hockey team on crashed Russian plane, 36 dead
Rusian Saleh, Josef Vasicek and Karel Rachunek also on Brad McCrimmon coached team



MOSCOW - A passenger plane carrying a Russian ice hockey team crashed shortly after takeoff near the city of Yaroslavl on Wednesday, killing 36 of the 37 people on board, officials and news agencies said.

The Yak-42 aircraft was headed from the city north of Moscow to Minsk in Belarus when it crashed, an official at state aviation agency Rosaviatsia said. The official said 36 people were killed and one was injured.

The plane was carrying members of a Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Continental Hockey League (KHL) hockey team to a match in Minsk, Belarus, state-run RIA news agency cited a regional Emergency Situations Ministry official as saying.

Former Canuck Pavol Demitra was a member of the team as was Karel Rachunek, who played for the Ottawa Senators, Josef Vasicek, also a centre formerly with the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes and Ruslan Salei, who played for the Detroit Red Wings.


The team's coach, Brad McCrimmon of Plenty, Sask., is a former Calgary Flame who won the Stanley Cup with the team in 1989.


Interfax cited a security official as saying the plane caught fire after the crash near the airport.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered Transport Minister Igor Levitin to travel to the site.

The crash occurred while Russia was hosting an international political forum in Yaroslavl that President Dmitry Medvedev was expected to address this week.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, founded in 1949 as the team of the Railways Ministry, is one of Russia's leading hockey teams and came runner up in the nascent Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 and 2009. In 1997 it took the Russian Superleague title and won back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003. It was one of the favorites for this year's Kontinental Hockey League.(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Steve Gutterman)

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Fromer Canuck Pavol Demitra was a member of the Locomotiv team that was on a plane that crashed in Russia, September 7, 2011


Forward Pavol Demitra packs up his things as the Vancouver Canucks' ‘garbage-bag day’ takes place on Thursday at GM Place. Demitra was a member of the Locomotiv team that was on a plane that crashed in Russia, September 7, 2011.



Pavol Demitra was a member of the Locomotiv team that was on a plane that crashed in Russia, September 7, 2011.