Pavol Demitra, Igor Korelev, Canadian head coach Brad McCrimmon passed away along with many others...an entire team and coaching staff gone in an instant...
Canadian coach McCrimmon among 43 dead in Russian plane crash
MOSCOW—Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon is among the dead in a Russian plane crash that happened Wednesday while the jet was taking off in western Russia, killing 43 people and critically injuring two others.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42, part of an aging fleet that was to have been taken out of service next year, crashed immediately after taking off from an airport near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River, 240 kilometres northeast of Moscow.
The plane was carrying the Lokomotiv hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk, the capital of Belarus where it was to play Thursday against Dynamo Minsk in the opening game of the season of the Continental Hockey League (KHL).
There were 45 people — 37 passengers and eight crew members — on board, the ministry said. Citing preliminary information, the ministry said two people survived and were taken to hospital.
It was one of the worst plane crashes ever involving a sports team.
KHL confirmed that Canadian Brad McCrimmon was among the dead. McCrimmon took over as head coach in May.
A native of Saskatchewan, the 52-year-old was most recently an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, and played for years in the NHL for Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Hartford and Phoenix.
Officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.
Eleven foreign players were reportedly onboard the jet. A Czech Embassy official said Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek were among those killed, and Latvian officials confirmed the death of Latvian defenceman Karlis Skrastins.
Swedish goalie Stefan Liv was also confirmed dead.
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