Our heart goes out to anyone affected by the Yak-42 passenger plane chartered by the KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl which is reported to have hit a light post on takeoff, and crashed shortly thereafter. The crash took the lives of 43 of the 45 on board.
“We have no team any more,” team spokesman Vladimir N. Malkov is quoted as saying. “All our starting players, and all the service people, they all burned in the crash.”
The team was en route to Minsk, where they were to kickoff their 2011-12 KHL season. Speaking at the traditional Opening Cup game between last year’s finalists, KHL President Aleksandr Medvedev told the crowd “we will do our best to keep the high-level hockey in Yaroslavl.”
