Officials are investigating the cause of a plane crash in north-western Russia that killed 44 people.

俄罗斯官员目前正在调查近日某客机在西北部地区坠毁的原因，此次事故使44人死亡。

Russian Deputy PM Sergey Ivanov said the crash, near the city of Petrozavodsk, was probably caused by pilot error in poor weather conditions.

The plane had veered¹（转向） away from the airport runway and attempted to land on a motorway² but crashed and caught fire.

Eight people including a 10-year-old boy survived the crash with severe injuries.

His 14-year-old sister and a flight attendant were also rescued from the wreckage³.

The RusAir Tupolev 134 plane, with 43 passengers and nine crew on board, was flying from the capital, Moscow, to Petrozavodsk, the main city in the Karelia region.

It just missed houses close to the motorway. One source told the Interfax news agency that bodies were strewn across the road.

A mobile phone video of the scene shortly afterwards showed flames from the wreckage soaring into the night sky.

'Power cut'

Mr Ivanov said the crash resembled one in April last year in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were killed as their Tu-154 plane attempted to land near the Russian city of Smolensk.

"I don't want to pre-empt the inquiry⁴... but from the initial external data the pilot's mistake is clear - in bad weather conditions he veered to the right of the runway and in foggy conditions searched for the runway visually until the last minute [and] did not find it," he said.

But the inter-state air commission, a body which investigates air accidents in the former USSR, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying it was premature⁵ to draw conclusions about the cause.

Mr Ivanov reiterated⁶ earlier reports that the aircraft hit a power line, causing a power cut that extinguished landing lights on the runway.

Other Russian officials have said back-up systems were then switched on, but too late to stop the aircraft from crashing.

The emergencies ministry⁷ has published a full list of the passengers and the names of the survivors⁸. One Dutch and one Swedish national, two Ukrainians and a Russian family of four with dual⁹ US citizenship¹⁰ were all among the dead.

Interfax news agency said most of the senior management of Gidropress, a subsidiary（子公司） of the Russian nuclear export agency Rosatom, were killed, as well as Russian premier¹¹ league football referee¹²（裁判员） Vladimir Pettay.

The survivors are said to be in critical condition and suffering from burns.

Most have been sent to Moscow for further treatment.