Plane carrying Russian hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashes, kills 36 people

Multiple news sources are reporting that a plane carrying professional ice hockey team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ahs crashed. Russian authorities say as many as 36 people have died although it is believe that at least three people have survived but are critically injured.

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Cornwall - Sep. 7, 2011 - Multiple news sources today are reporting that a plane carrying professional ice hockey team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ahs crashed.

Russian authorities say as many as 36 people have died, although it is believe that at least three people have survived but are critically injured.

According to the reports, the plane, a Yakovlev Yak-42 passenger jet, went down and caught fire shortly after taking to the air, crashing less than 2 kilometers from the airport.

Lokomotiv was scheduled to play Dynamo Minsk on Thursday, according to the KHL website.

The KHL season opened Wednesday with a game bewtween Ufa and Atalant. The game was stopped once news of the tragedy broke and will not be restarted.

At this point, no names have been released. The team roster posted one week ago listed former Ottawa Senators players Karel Rachunek and Pavol Dimitra as well as former Detroit Red Wing Ruslan Salei. It has also been reported that Canadian-born coach Brad McCrimmon was also on board. It is still not known whether they were on board the flight.