Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the individuals who appear in the video as airport staff, and misidentified the video's location as a restricted area of Sheremetyevo. This was due to a translation error by managing editor Kevin Rothrock, and we apologize for the mistake.
Top executives at Sheremetyevo airport are demanding the “severest” punishment for the individuals who filmed themselves laughing at Sunday's airplane fire aboard a Sukhoi Superjet 100, which killed 41 people. In a video that claims to have been recorded in a restricted area of Sheremetyevo, individuals watch the SSJ100 make its emergency landing, as one man jokes that the plane “landed well, making sparks fly.”
In a press statement, representatives for the airport said the actions of these individuals discredit airport workers and denigrate human dignity. The airport says the footage “goes against all the norms of basic human decency and professional ethics.” Sheremetyevo also clarified that no staff from the airport or Aeroflot were involved in the incident.
For more about the Sukhoi Superjet 100
- How the airline, the airport, and the authorities refrained from naming the number of fatalities in Moscow’s airplane fire: A timeline
- ‘Everyone’s trying to believe that their friends and relatives are still alive’ How passengers’ relatives coped in the hours following Sunday’s catastrophic airplane fire in Moscow