Russia: plane crash kills 44 (VIDEO)

At least 44 people were killed and eight injured when a passenger jet crashed onto a highway outside Petrozavodsk in northwestern Russia, authorities announced Tuesday.

An Emergency Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters the Tupolev-134 plane broke up and caught fire as it was coming into land in fog. The plane crashed about half a mile from the Besovets airport runway late Monday night.

The plane, operated by RusAir, was carrying 52 people including nine crew members. Most of the survivors are in critical condition at the hospital, BBC reports.

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An online news site, www.lifenews.ru, reported that a 10-year-old boy survived the crash. A medical worker at the scene told a local television crew the boy had been taking to a local hospital but was in "very grave" condition, Reuters reports.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry told CNN the plane was traveling from Moscow to Petrozavodsk, about 600 miles to the north.

Nearly 140 rescue workers, doctors and police were at the scene early Tuesday morning.

A team of accident investigators have flown to the scene, and the flight recorders have been recovered, BBC states. An investigation is under way.