Eurolanche

Salei, Skrastins died one year ago

The date 7^th September 2011 will never be usually date anymore. It will be a day when sports and maybe also non-sports fans will remember what they exactly did. I still remember where I was for the lunch and with whom. I know where I went after that and when I came home. Then I checked news sites, turned on TV and had started to watch the tragedy on air. Clocks were ticking, the list of victims were getting longer and longer. It was horror.

The plane with the entire team of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on board did not leave a runway on time. It continued beyond and when finally took off, it hit in the pillar. Plane continued few yards and then crashed into the river. Rescuers pulled two living persons from the wreck. One of them died few days later. Only survivor of the tragedy is a plane engineer. The rest of the crew, all players, coaches and staff members have died. Overall number of victims is 44 people.

Two former Colorado Avalanche players were on board. Defensemen Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins. Participants of Eurolanche Invasions had a chance to meet Ruslan in person in Denver. The second player broke the NHL record in the number of consecutive games played. There died next other great hockey persons like Slovak all-star player Pavol Demitra, Jose Vasicek who won the Stanley Cup with Carolina Hurricanes, great Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, Canadian head coach Brad McCrimmon… The list is long. It is still hard to remember on the tragic day even after one year.

Big players and persons died in Russia. Fans loved and still love them. They were not persons with some controversial background. There were not people who did not like them. They were hockey players loved by their nations and hockey fans around the world. It was pure sadness. This kind of tragic will hardly happen again in the future. Everyone hope it will not.

The saddest fact is we still do not know what exactly happened at the airport. Here is the list of possible causes: bad condition of the plane, unnecessary pressure from the airport crew on the take off due some political event preparing in the city, fail of pilots or even the fake licenses of pilots, so they could ride this type of plane. KHL was not able to manage safety conditions for its player. That is the reason why I will never follow it.

Rest in the peace.

Our coverage of the tragic accident:

Plane with KHL players crashed, 44 dead

Avs fans honored dead players

Slovaks and Czechs honor victims

Photo gallery