Russian police officers and investigators look at the wreckage of a Tu-134 plane crashed in the central Russian city of Samara, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) southeast of Moscow, Saturday, March 17, 2007. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    MOSCOW, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The number of people killed in the crash landing of a Russian passenger plane on Saturday in the western city of Samara has been revised to six from the previous toll of seven, officials said.

    The Interfax news agency quoted Timur Khikmatov, a spokesman of the Russian Transportation Ministry, as confirming six people, four women and two men, killed in the crash landing of the Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft. At least 26 people were injured, with six in serious condition.

    The aircraft "landed roughly and one of the wings contacted the runway," Emergency Situation Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova was quoted by Interfax as saying.

    The plane, which belonged to Russia's UTAir airlines, was flying from Surgut to Samara, a city on the Volga river, and its fuselage collapsed as it crash-landed at 9:40 a.m. (0640 GMT) at the Samara airport.

    The plane, which was carrying 50 passengers and seven crew members, landed in heavy fog, Andrianova said.

    Prosecutors have opened a criminal case into the accident and said they were considering pilot error, among other theories, as likely causes for the crash landing.

    Saturday's accident followed two major accidents involving Russian airlines last year.

    A Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet of the Pulkovo Airlines, en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, crashed 50 km north of the eastern Ukrainian town of Donetsk on Aug. 22, 2006, killing all 170 passengers and crew onboard, with dozens of children among the victims.

    An Airbus A-310 plane of Russia's Sibir Airlines veered off the runway and smashed into adjacent buildings at the airport in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on July 9, 2006, killing 129 of the 203 people aboard.