Brake system focus of airliner crash probe

? Investigators examining the charred remains of a Russian airliner that skidded off a rain-slick runway and crashed Sunday in Siberia, killing at least 124 people, are focusing on the possibility that the plane’s hydraulic brake system failed upon landing, according to news reports.

Preliminary data indicate that “after landing, the aircraft’s brake system failed, causing the failure of the system’s other mechanisms,” an unidentified investigator told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. “As a result, the aircraft became uncontrollable after landing.”

The Airbus A-310 operated by S7 Airlines was carrying 204 people, including eight crew members and 14 children younger than 12, when it crashed Sunday morning in the city of Irkutsk, according to the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry.