(Update: 43 Dead) Russian Hockey Players Reported Dead After Team Plane Crash

Update 2: 43 people of 45 people on board the flight died. Russia Today has some footage of the wreckage.

BBC has more details.

The plane went down and caught fire shortly after taking to the air. Preliminary reports say it had insufficient lift and hit a beacon tower. The crash site is between 500 and 1,000 meters from the runway, according to different reports.

The Yak-42 was on its way to the Belarusian capital Minsk and had 37 people on board, aviation authorities reported. The aircraft’s maximum capacity is 120 passengers and crew.

Several of the victims were foreign players for the club. The squad includes players from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden.

The Seattle Times is reporting there is one survivor who is critically injured. Lokomotiv most recently won the Bronze medal in the Russian Open Championship.

Update 1 : According to this, there were two survivors.

According to NHL.com, multiple players had NHL ties:

The team’s head coach, Brad McCrimmon, played in the NHL and most recently served as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings before taking the Yaroslavl job in May. Defenseman Karel Rachunek, Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins, as well as forwards Pavol Demitra and Josef Vasicek  all spent a good deal of time in the NHL. Forward Alexander Vasyunov played a handful of games with the New Jersey Devils  last season.