Flydubai aircraft crashes in Russia. 62 confirmed dead.

FZ981 was en route from Dubai and crashed during a landing attempt after an earlier go-around.
The flight was carrying 55 passengers  including 33 women, 18 men four children and seven crew.
According to statements from the scene of the crash, air-traffic control and local emergency services confirmed that the Boeing 737-800 jet crashed near the runway during poor visibility weather conditions. The crash site is believed to be some 50-100metres to the left of the runway approach. A fire that broke out on impact was quickly extinguished reports say. 

The accident happened at 0050 GMT, according to the statement. The plane had left Dubai at 1820 GMT,(22.20 local time).
Flight tracking devices showed the aircraft had made an initial approach and entered the hold before being cleared to land.
According to sources at the airport the weather conditions featured high winds with wintery rain and snow flurries.
The aircraft crew abandoned the initial landing and climbed out making two orbits and a wide turn before re-establishing itself on the beacon to carry out the second landing attempt.
Arabian Aerospace editor, Alan Peaford, speaking to Sky News this morning said: ”This is a terrible tragedy for everyone involved with FlyDubai and of course our thoughts are with the family and the crew. Air crash investigators from the GCAA and the officials from Flydubai, manufacturer Boeing and the engine maker CFM will be on their way to Rostov-on-Don as quickly as possible to work with the Russian investigators. What we do know is that Flydubai has a modern fleet, it has highly competent and well trained pilots and has a world-class management team that follows rigorous safety standards.”

Earlier this month the airline was awarded its IOSA certificate from IATA having achieved the top standards required in the rigerous safety audit.
This is the first major incident involving the UAE airlines.
Rostov-on-Don airport is closed with inbound flights being getting rerouted to Krasnodar
A statement on theFlydubai website confirmed the incident said the airline is “investigating further details and will publish an update once more information is available.”
An initial statement said:

"Flydubai regrets to confirm that flight FZ981 crashed on landing and that fatalities have been confirmed as a result of this tragic accident. The aircraft departed from Dubai International (DXB) at 18:20 GMT bound for Rostov on Don (ROV). The accident occurred in Rostov on Don at approximately 00:50 GMT.

We are doing all we can to gather information as quickly as possible. At this moment our thoughts and prayers are with our passengers and our crew who were on board the aircraft. We will do everything we can to help those who have been affected by this accident.
We are putting our emergency response in place and we will be working closely with all the authorities involved. We will share as much information as possible just as soon as we can and we will provide updated information on a regular basis.
For any concerned friends or family: + 44203 4508 853 or +9714 293 4100

Reports on Russian TV have said that all 55 passengers are believed to be Russian. The names and nationalities of the crew have not been revealed at this stage.
Russia’s emergencies ministry has opened up a hotline and reports say a team of psychologists are supporting the grieving relatives. At a press conference in Russia, the regulator said it has launched a probe into the incident with preliminary data indicating that the plane disintegrated and caught fire upon touching the ground.
Reports from that event claim the debris were spread across the area of several kilometers.

Industry analyst Saj Ahmad commenting on the crash this morning said: "It's too early to finger-point the exact cause for the crash, but early indications point to a crash landing in poor weather.

"The 737-800 has one of the best safety records of any airliner, and Flydubai is one of the world's youngest, astute and safest operators of the type. Both the airline, Boeing and CFM International, alone with the relevant authorities will move quickly to determine the cause of the accident. Initial reports of a bad weather landing on its second attempt seem to be consistent with a crash short of the runway, but it'll be a while before we know the exact sequences of events that led to this accident.

"The 737-800 involved (A6-FDN) was delivered in 2011 and had its last major C-check on 21 January 2016. By any metric, this is a very young airplane. A 737 takes off or lands somewhere in the world every 3 seconds. So you can see how versatile and widely used it is across the globe - from full service airlines, low cost airlines to corporate jet usage. Put simply, the 737 family is one of the safest airplanes you could ever hope to fly. Its evolution on a technical, engineering and safety basis is beyond amazing and that jets like this simply do not fall out of the sky without a darn good reason.

"The 737-800 that is part of the flydubai fleet has a dispatch reliability rate of 99.77% and flydubai's fleet operates with a daily utilisation rate of about 14 hours - one of the highest of any 737 operator. Its frankly impossible to find a better airplane anywhere in the industry to even come close to this engineering perfection. That's why flydubai chose this airplane and in 2013 ordered up to 100 new 737 MAX 8s to augment its fleet growth and expansion plans and has opined about taking more of them as it eventually moves to Dubai World Central / Al Maktoum International Airport."

Ahmad added: "Like the airplane, flydubai has a fantastic safety record. This crash is its first and until then, the airline has operated under the strictest safety regime employed by the UAE. It was quick to pull out of places like Syria when the civil war there started, and took precautions when one of its 737s was shot at on arrival in Baghdad.

"Flydubai has an immensely robust brand image and they will get through this devastating tragedy and the way that they are helping all the affected victims' friends and family has gone a long way to providing some comfort for such an awful event.'

The approach by the Flydubai B737 before the crash, captured by Flightradar 24