A YAK-42 passenger plane carrying 45 people crashed into a river bank Wednesday after taking off near central Russian city of Yaroslavl, killing 44 people aboard, said the Emergency Situations Ministry.

Still image from TV shows the site of a plane crash in Yaroslavl, Russia, Sept. 7, 2011. A YAK-42 passenger plane carrying 45 people crashed Wednesday after taking off near central Russian city of Yaroslavl, killing at least 43 people aboard, said the Emergency Situations Ministry. [Xinhua]

The charted aircraft carrying the Lokomotiv hockey team of Yaroslavl aboard to a match in Minsk, went down at 16:05 Moscow time (1200 GMT) in Tunoshna airport, the ministry said.

37 passengers and 8 crew members were on board, the ministry said. 

26 bodies have been found at the crash site and the injured were in serious conditions.

Victims include three Czech world champions, a Swedish goalkeeper, a renowned Slovak forward and a Canadian coach, Reuters reported.  

"This is a terrible tragedy for the global ice hockey community with so many nationalities involved," said International Ice Hockey Federation President René Fasel, who immediately called the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and KHL officials to offer condolences. "Our thoughts and prayers are with family and friends of the victims."

"This is the darkest day in the history of our sport," Fasel said. "This is not only a Russian tragedy, the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from ten nations." 

Russia's federal aviation agency Rosaviatsiya told reporters that preliminary information showed that the plane had failed to climb and hit a beacon's antenna outside the runway.

So far, the cause of the crash was still unclear. But Interfax quoted a source at the local airport as saying that two possible reasons might caused the crash: equipment failures and the human factor.

The crashed plane belongs to Yak-Service airlines. Local reports said the plane has been put into operation since 1993, and its certificate of airworthiness will expire on Oct. 1, 2011.

A Kremlin spokesperson said President Dmitry Medvedev, who is attending an international forum at a nearby place, will pay a visit to the crash site, where he will be joined by Transport Minister Igor Levitin who is going there under an order from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The rescue works and investigations have already started.