Runway equipment partially out as misfortunate Tu-134 landed

MOSCOW, June 21 (Itar-Tass) - High intensity lights were out of
operation at the runway of the airport at Russia's northwest city of
Petrozavodsk when the misfortunate Tupolev-134 jet, which eventually
crash-landed on an automobile road close to the airport, was about to land
late Monday night.
Itar-Tass heard this from Alexei Morozov, a deputy chairman of the CIS
Interstate Aviation Committee.
"The high intensity lights that should have been switched on in the
conditions of poor visibility /the weather was bad in the airport area at
the time of landing - Itar-Tass/ were out of operation," he said without
specifying why a situation like that one had taken shape.
"The causes of this will be cleared out by a special commission,"
Morozov said.
Earlier, he told Itar-Tass that "the ground systems ensuring the safe
landing of jets had not been functioning properly for one or another
reason.
The crash-landing of the Tupolev-134 killed 44 people aboard and left
only eight survivors, seven of them in a very heavy condition, medical
reports said.
The jet took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport at 22:30 Monday.
Slightly less than an hour and a half later it hit the surface of the
Petrozavodsk-Suojarvi road, splitting into parts and catching fire.