Alexander Usoltsev / AP

Rescuers work where a plane skidded off the runway at Vnukovo airport in Moscow on Saturday, Dec. 29. The Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Moscow-based Red Wings broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people.

"We saw how the plane skidded off the runway ... The nose, where business class is, broke off and a man fell out," said a witness, who gave his name as Alexei. "We helped him get into a mini-bus to take him to the hospital."

Another witness described pulling four people from the wreckage when he arrived at the scene before emergency service workers. "We could not get the pilot out of the cockpit but we saw a lot of blood," he told the TV station Rossiya-24.

-- Reported by Reuters

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Alexander Usoltsev / AP

Yuri Kochetkov / EPA