Navigator in Russian Plane Crash 'Was Drunk'

47 killed in June disaster
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2011 6:31 AM CDT
Navigator in RusAir Russian Plane Crash Was Drunk: Official
Forensic experts examine a body near wreckage of the Tu-134 plane, June 21, 2011.   (AP Photo/Timur Khanov, Komsomolskaya Pravda)

The navigator for a Russian passenger flight that crashed in June was “in a condition of alcoholic intoxication,” a rep for the country's top investigative body told state television yesterday. Some 47 people were killed when the RusAir Tupolev-134 hit a highway in northwest Russia just before it was due to land, the AP notes. The navigator, killed in the disaster, is believed to have drunk a glass of vodka before takeoff, the broadcast noted. (Click to read about a deadly weekend crash in Reno.)

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