Passengers plunge 12ft to the ground when plane steps COLLAPSE as they board a flight in Russia
- Steps to plane suddenly collapsed during boarding of the Ural Airlines flight
- Six passengers fell 12 feet on to tarmac in minus 15C Siberian temperatures
- Three people were injured, one with a broken leg and another with back injury
- Barnaul airport in Siberia said accident was due to a ‘hidden fault’ on the steps
The steps of a plane suddenly collapsed, sending six passengers plunging around 12ft onto the tarmac below this morning.
The passengers were boarding a flight from the Siberian city of Barnaul to Moscow in the early hours when the accident happened.
A CCTV camera showed the moment the Ural Airlines travellers fell to the ground due to a ‘hidden fault’.
Three of the six people were rushed to hospital after the Airbus A320 nightmare, said airport officials.
One has a suspected broken leg and another a back injury.
The moment six passengers fell around 12 feet from the Ural Airlines stairs as the top platform of the steps collapsed
A representative of Barnaul airport in Siberia said the accident was due to a ‘hidden fault’ on the steps which was ‘impossible to detect’ during the regular pre-flight check
A passenger said: ‘They all fell at once, it was like watching a computer game.
‘I was about to go up the steps when it happened. I was the first who ran to help.’
One man had broken his leg, and others were injured but it was not immediately clear how badly, he said.
‘A young woman was lucky as she wasn’t injured at all, she just got a shock, we all got quite a fright’, he added.
Passengers and airport staff rushed to help those who fell.
The victims were the only passengers on the steps when the collapse happened – the rest were queuing on the tarmac in temperatures of -15C.
A Barnaul airport representative said the accident was due to a ‘hidden fault’ on the steps which was ‘impossible to detect’ during the regular pre-flight check.
A passenger said ‘they all fell at once, it was like watching a computer game’ as the steps collapsed during boarding
Three passengers were taken to hospital after falling on to the frozen tarmac which hit minus 15C at Barnaul airport in Siberia
But Western Siberia Transport Prosecutor’s official Oksana Gorbunova said inspectors were now working at the airport examining what went wrong.
Three passengers were taken to a city hospital and the flight left for Moscow after a delay of several hours.
The airline insisted the steps were provided by the airport and it would not compensate the injured passengers.
Confirming the accident, Ural Airlines said it did not bear responsibility.
‘The airport equipment is the airport’s responsibility’, said the airline’s press secretary.
A second video from the Russian Investigative Committee showed new steps being taken to the plane ahead of the delayed departure as checks were made on the cause of the accident.