A plane carrying Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed on Wednesday, reportedly killing most of the passengers on board.
Reports have indicated that all 37 members of the Lokomotiv team were on the flight (nhl.com, 9/7). The team was traveling to their first game of the 2011-12 KHL season, a Thursday matchup with Dinamo Minsk.
According to CTV, 43 of the 45 passengers on board the flight died (ctv.ca, 9/7). Yahoo! Sports reports that there were 42 on board (sports.yahoo.com, 9/7).
The Lokomotiv roster includes some familiar NHL names, including Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei and coach Brad McCrimmon.
NHL.com has cited “unconfirmed reports” that Salei was not on the plane (nhl.com, 9/7).
The crash is the latest incident in a horrific summer for the hockey community, which is reeling from the deaths of active NHL players Derek Boogaard and Rick Rypien and recently retired NHL player Wade Belak.
(Information from CTV, NHL.com, additional information from Yahoo! Sports; Lokomotiv logo from sportslogos.net)
