On 7 September 2011, YAK-Service Flight 9633, a Yakovlev Yak-42 charter flight operated by YAK-Service, carrying players and coaching staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team, crashed during take-off near Yaroslavl, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. All but one of the 45 people on board were killed. The aircraft overran the runway at Tunoshna Airport before briefly lifting off, striking an antenna mast, catching fire, and crashing on the bank of the Volga river.[1] The tragedy is commonly known as the Lokomotiv hockey team disaster.[2][3][4]
Twenty-six players of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team were killed:[33] Player Age Country Position Vitaly Anikeyenko[a] 24 Russia D Mikhail Balandin 31 Russia D Gennady Churilov 24 Russia C Pavol Demitra 36 Slovakia C Robert Dietrich 25 Germany D Alexander Galimov[35][36] 26 Russia LW Marat Kalimulin 23 Russia D Alexander Kalyanin 23 Russia RW Andrei Kiryukhin 24 Russia RW Nikita Klyukin 21 Russia C Stefan Liv 30 Sweden G Jan Marek 31 Czech Republic C Sergei Ostapchuk 21 Belarus LW Karel Rachůnek 32 Czech Republic D Ruslan Salei[37] 36 Belarus D Maxim Shuvalov 18 Russia D Kārlis Skrastiņš[38] 37 Latvia D Pavel Snurnitsyn 19 Russia F Daniil Sobchenko[a] 20 Russia C Ivan Tkachenko 31 Russia LW Pavel Trakhanov 33 Russia D Yuri Urychev[b] 20 Russia D Josef Vašíček 30 Czech Republic C Alexander Vasyunov[40] 23 Russia LW Alexander Vyukhin[a] 38 Ukraine G Artem Yarchuk 21 Russia LW Team staff killed Among the team staff on board were:[33] Name Age Country Position Alexander Karpovtsev 41 Russia Assistant coach Igor Korolev[c] 41 Canada Assistant coach Brad McCrimmon 52 Canada Head coach Goalkeeper coach Jorma Valtonen was not on the aircraft as he stayed behind to work with the junior team.[39][42]
