ST. PETERSBURG, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian emergencies official said Tuesday Dutch nationals were onboard the Tu-154 plane that crashed in stormy weather in Ukraine while flying from Russia's resort city on the Black Sea to St Petersburg earlier in the day.
Leonid Belyayev, emergencies chief in St. Petersburg, said their exact number had yet to be clarified.
All 171 people onboard, including 39 children under the age of 12 and six under the age of two, were killed in the crash.
The Tu-154 jet owned by St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Airlines was flying from the Russian resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg via Ukrainian territory, and crashed 45 kilometers (30 miles) outside Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.
So far 30 bodies have been recovered from the three-engine plane, but Ukrainian emergencies services also said a blaze at the crash site was hampering recovery efforts.
Preliminary reports suggest that a lightning strike caused the crash.
