Ice Hockey Player, Crew Member Sole Survivors of Russian Plane Crash

An undated handout photo provided by the Continental Ice Hockey League shows a group photo of Russian ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Two passengers - a member of the ice hockey team that perished and another one from the crew - have survived the fatal crash of a Russian airliner on Wednesday, local media reported, citing doctors.

The survivors have been identified as Alexander Galimov, a Russian player, and Alexander Sizov, a member of the crew. Both are in critical condition.

Previous reports cited officials as saying that two people were unaccounted for after the crash, the cause of which has not been confirmed.

Witnesses saw the plane, a Yak-42, burst into flames shortly after taking off from an airport at the city of Yaroslavl, about 250km (160 miles) north-east of Moscow. Forty three people have been killed.

Investigators found wreckage of the plane in the Volga river.

Members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team were on board the plane, on their way to Belarus for the first match of the season. A lucky member of the team – Ruslan Salei – was not aboard the plane as he arrived in Minsk ahead of the squad.

The team, which had been due to play Dinamo Minsk on Thursday, includes players from Germany, Sweden, and Slovakia as well as Russia.

Pavol Demitra, a former Kings forward and a three-time NHL All-Star, and former Kings prospect Jan Marek were confirmed to be among 43 people killed in Wednesday's crash.

A Czech Embassy official told the Associated Press that former NHL players Josef Vasicek and Karel Rachunek were among those killed. Latvian officials confirmed the death of former NHL defenseman Karlis Skrastins.

Locomotiv Coach Brad McCrimmon, a former NHL defenseman who worked as assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, also died in the crash.

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