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Navigator on Fatal Tu-134 Flight Was Drunk

The navigator responsible for landing the RusLine Tu-134 that crashed near Petrozavodsk in June was drunk, an Investigative Committee spokesman told Rossiya-1 on Sunday.

Medical examiners determined that navigator Aman Atayev had drunk about a glass of vodka, Vladimir Markin told the Vesti Nedeli news program.

Forty-seven were killed when the Tu-134 crashed just short of the runway while trying to land in thick fog at Karelia's capital. The pilot had rejected instructions from the air traffic controller to abort the landing.

Atayev's other duties included charting the plane's course and monitoring altitude.

His former mother-in-law said Atayev's recent divorce had driven him to drink but he never drank before flights.? 

Shortly after the crash, President Dmitry Medvedev said the Tu-134 and other Soviet-built planes should be taken out of service.

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