The plane, a Pulkovo Airlines Ilyushin Il-86, was en route from Moscow to St Petersburg when it came down in a forest about 700 metres (2,300 feet) from the airport.

The aircraft, which can carry up to 350 passengers, was empty apart from 16 flight and cabin crew.

Two women were pulled alive from the wreckage and taken to hospital.

The plane's two black box flight recorders have been recovered, Russian media reported, and the cause of the crash is being investigated.

Ball of flame

Witnesses said the plane appeared to take off without problems, but then banked sharply at about 200 metres (656 feet) and crashed in a ball of flame.

Rescue workers and fire crews raced to the scene.

A huge plume of smoke was still rising from the wreckage hours after the plane came down at about 1530 local time (1130 GMT).

"I have never seen anything like this in all my years of service. There were body parts lying al around," a policeman at the crash site said.

About 100 army conscripts combed the area for debris for the investigation, and a group of Russian security service officials were also at the scene of the crash.

Survival 'exceptional'

Officials said two female flight attendants, who had both been in the plane's tail section, survived the crash.

One of the women suffered concussion of the brain and was taken to intensive care.

The other, identified as Arina Vinogradova, suffered only an injured hand and bruises and was shown on Russian television sitting up in her hospital bed.

Dmitry Fedorovsky, a doctor, said Ms Vinogradova's survival was an "exceptional case".

The Ilyushin Il-86, a four-engine wide-bodied plane, is Russia's most common, long-distance airliner.

The crash came a day after a Russian-built Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet crashed into a crowd in western Ukraine, killing 83 people, in the world's worst air show disaster.

Questions are now being asked about air safety in both Russia and Ukraine.

(China Daily July 29, 2002)