Russia orders investigation after plane skids off runway

MOSCOW – Russian investigators are looking into an incident in which a passenger aircraft operated by national carrier Aeroflot skidded off a runway in the Western Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Transport investigators said Wednesday that the Airbus A-320 overshot the runway by five meters after landing at Khrabrovo airport in a snowstorm late Tuesday.

All 174 passengers and crew were rescued during an emergency evacuation.

Aeroflot declined to comment on the reasons for the incident until it had completed its own investigation, according to a representative quoted by Russian news agency TASS.

Photographs posted on social media by passengers after the incident showed the plane nose-down in the snow. Passenger Andrey Zeigarnik said in a Facebook post that the pilot gave no warning of any problems before the landing.