MOSCOW, July 9 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin has declared July 10 a day of mourning for the victims of a Siberia air crash Sunday.
"Expressing grief over the [air crash] victims and conveying condolences to their relatives and close ones, I decree to declare July 10, 2006 a day of mourning in the Russian Federation and to lower the state flags of the Russian Federation," the presidential decree says.
An Airbus 310-300, owned by Novosibirsk-based S7, formerly Sibir, was making a routine flight from Moscow to the city of Irkutsk, about 3,000 miles east of the capital and the home airport for popular tourist destination Lake Baikal. The airliner veered off the runway on landing and burst into flames after hitting a concrete wall.
According to the latest data of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, 122 people have been killed in the air crash.
