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Smoke on a Plane for Peruvian Fans

Gleb Garanich / Reuters

 A group of Peruvian football fans whose plane was filled with smoke after an engine failure has vowed to launch legal proceedings against Russian airline Utair, the Peruvian Embassy said in a Facebook statement on Saturday.  

The passenger plane, which was carrying the fans from Yekaterinburg to Tyumen in Siberia, landed safely on Friday after an engine failure caused the cabin to fill with smoke, Russia’s air transport regulator said Saturday. 

The engine of a plane carrying Saudi Arabia’s team also reportedly caught fire earlier this week.

“Some of the citizens plan to make claims against the airline for the alleged breach of security protocols as well as for delays in their air connections,” the embassy said. 

Russia’s state aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, said the smoke soon cleared from the cabin and that the pilot was able to safely land the plane on one engine. “During the landing approach there was a failure in the second turboprop engine,” Rosaviatsia said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Utair said media reports about a fire breaking out on the plane were incorrect. Utair is now working with aviation authorities to investigate whether a foreign object got into the engine, she added.

Reuters contributed reporting to this article.

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