TEHRAN (Iran News) – Distressing new footage has emerged of passengers fleeing from an inferno jet as the authorities in Russia charged the captain of the plane with negligence after it was hit by lightning and set on fire.

The footage shows the harrowing crash landing of the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner last year, which resulted in the deaths of 41 people on board and left 10 more injured. The video was part of the materials that the committee responsible for investigating the accident collected and forwarded to state prosecutors.

Those officials have now formally charged Aeroflot pilot Denis Evdokimov with criminal negligence leading to the fatalities and the destruction of the aircraft, The Drive reported.

The accident occurred on May 9, 2019, at Russia’s Sheremetyevo airport, which is situated just outside Moscow and is the primary airport serving the country’s capital.

The Superjet 100 bounced during the landing attempt and came down hard again, causing the landing gear to collapse. The aircraft then went skidding down the edge of the runway, damaging the wings, after which a fire erupted as fuel spilled from the wing tanks. The entire rear section of the aircraft ultimately burned away, making it a total loss. Video and pictures had emerged of the accident at the time, but the new footage offers by far the most detailed and terrifying look at the tragedy to date.

In the new video, which appears to have been shot from a fixed camera inside the airport, Flight 1492 slides into a view and comes to a stop, already engulfed in flames. Some 17 seconds after the aircraft comes to rest, the flight crew opens the right front main cabin door and deploys an emergency slide. Around 13 seconds after that, they deploy the slide on the opposite side of the plane. A total of 37 passengers and crew escaped unscathed.

The Russian Investigative Committee announced that Evdokimov had been formally charged with violation of safety rules and the negligent control of his plane leading to mass deaths, harm to health and major damage.

His failure to control the lightning-hit Superjet ‘resulted in the destruction … of the aircraft’ killing 40 passengers and one crew member.

State investigators in charge of ‘particularly important cases’ say the actions of air traffic control and the emergency services on the ground were probed.

They were found not to be responsible for the loss of life. Nor were there problems with the aircraft to prevent a safe emergency landing, said the committee.