MOSCOW -- A Russian airliner split into pieces after it slid off the runway and crashed onto a highway outside Moscow on Saturday, killing at least four of the 12 crew on board and leaving smoking chunks of fuselage on the icy road.

Television footage showed the Tupolev 204 jet, broken into pieces, with smoke billowing from the tail end and the cockpit broken clean off the front. 

A man was thrown from the plane as it rammed into the barrier of the highway outside Vnukovo airport, one witness told the TV channel Rossiya-24.

Another witness described pulling other people from the wreckage.

"The plane split into three pieces," Yelena Krylova, chief spokeswoman for the airport, said in televised comments.

---

An Emergency Services spokesman said four people died of injuries after the crash and four others were in hospital. Police said 12 crew members were on board, but no passengers.

"The plane went off the runway, broke through the barrier and caught fire," police spokesman Gennady Bogachyov said.

The mid-range Tu-204 was operated by the Russian airline Red Wings and was traveling from the Czech Republic, Krylova said.

Rubble from the crash was scattered across the highway and the plane's wings were torn from the fuselage, witnesses said.

"We saw how the plane skidded off the runway ... The nose, where business class is, broke off and a man fell out," said a witness, who gave his name as Alexei. "We helped him get into a mini-bus to take him to the hospital."

Another witness described pulling four people from the wreckage when he arrived at the scene before emergency service workers. "We could not get the pilot out of the cockpit but we saw a lot of blood," he told Rossiya-24.

Russian investigators said preliminary findings pointed to pilot error as the cause of the crash.

Russia and other former Soviet republics had some of the world's worst air-traffic safety records last year, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, the International Air Transport Association said.

A passenger jet crashed and burst into flames after takeoff in Siberia in April, killing 31 people, and an airliner slammed into a riverbank in September 2011, wiping out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team in a crash that killed 44 people.

The Russian-built Tu-204, which is comparable in size to a Boeing 757 or Airbus A321, is a Soviet-era design that was produced in the mid-1990s but is no longer being made. There have no major accidents previously reported with Tu-204s.

The crash during peak holiday travel ahead of Russia's New Year's vacation, which runs from Sunday through Jan. 9, cast a spotlight on Russia's poor air-safety record despite President Vladimir Putin's calls to improve controls. 

More world stories from NBC News:

• India gang-rape victim dies in hospital; case focused attention on sexual violence
• Putin signs law banning American adoptions
• US sailors sue Japan's TEPCO for post-quake radiation exposure
• 'Depressing,' 'manipulative' portrayals damage hunger work in Africa, Oxfam complains
• Warm glow of Berlin's 'beautiful' gas streetlights set to fade
• Poll: London Olympics cheered up gloomy Brits
• Video: William and Kate spend holiday with the Middletons
• Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: Indonesian rescuers said Thursday that they had discovered bodies near the wreckage of a Russian-made airliner that disappeared from radar south of the capital Jakarta.

The crew of a helicopter searching for the jet had earlier spotted debris on the edge of a cliff in a mountainous area at 5,500 feet, a senior rescue official said.

---

The Sukhoi Superjet-100, carrying up to 50 people, lost contact with air traffic controllers during a demonstration flight Wednesday, officials said.

The Indonesian military said the plane "fell" from the sky, Reuters reported.

"The airplane crashed at the edge of Salak mountain," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a news conference. "An investigation must be done immediately and thoroughly."

Search and rescue teams reached the rugged site on Thursday afternoon local time and saw several bodies, The Associated Press reported. Spokesman Gagah Prakoso said the bodies would be placed in nets and lifted by ropes to hovering helicopters.

A photo taken from the rescue helicopter that found the debris appeared to show that the plane flew into an almost vertical wall of rock on an inaccessible part of the mountain.

Small pieces of white debris could be seen scattered down an exposed stretch of cliff surrounded by forest. Rescue officials said earlier that the walk to the site would take at least six hours.

'Completely ready to fly'
The aircraft was carrying Indonesian businessmen, Russian Embassy officials and journalists. Dimitry Solodov from the embassy said there were eight Russians on board, including pilots and technicians.

Those on board included eight crew and 42 guests, according to figures from the Russian Embassy.

The flight took off from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport at about 2 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) and disappeared from radar near the 7,200-foot Mount Salak in West Java, national search agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso told The Associated Press. It had been scheduled to return 50 minutes later.

Citing an official, Reuters reported that radio contact was lost with the plane after it descended from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet.

"I saw a big plane passing just over my house," said Juanda, a villager who lives near Mount Salak told local station TVOne. "It was veering a bit to one side, the engine roaring. It seemed to be heading toward Salak, but I didn't hear an explosion or anything."

Olga Kayukova, a spokeswoman for Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, told Reuters the Sukhoi Superjet-100 was making a second flight as part of the demonstration program.

"The first flight was carried out in a normal mode ... The pre-flight preparations were carried out in full and the plane was completely ready to fly," she said. "According to information from Indonesia, the contact with the plane was broken after 20 minutes from the take-off ...  search works are under way."

An Indonesian charter airline Sky Aviation posted on its Facebook account what it said was a picture of a Sukhoi Superjet-100 at the airport.

Russia Today reported that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered a special commission to investigate the incident. Relatives of passengers that had gathered at the airport began crying when news of the wreckage was announced, according to the Russia Today story.

With a capacity of up to 103 passengers, the Sukhoi's Superjet-100 was developed in partnership with Boeing and Italy's Finmeccanica. The plane is the first completely new airliner designed by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The missing plane was on the fourth stop of a six-nation "Welcome Asia!" roadshow after having already been to Myanmar, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

It was supposed to head next to Laos and Vietnam. Russia has hoped that the short- to mid-range jet, which made its maiden run in 2008, will help it break into international markets dominated by Boeing and Airbus.

Sukhoi, which has orders for 170 planes, plans to produce up to 1,000 Superjets, primarily for foreign markets.

Msnbc.com staff, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold
• US charity's gift to UK troops: $2 million for 'sanctuary'
• $868K mystery: Nigeria stock exchange's yacht, Rolexes vanish
• UK jails 9 members of sex gang who 'shared' teen girls
• Heathrow chaos: Travelers spend longer in line than on jets
• Leak hits Shell Nigeria pipeline at center of environmental case
• Story of vengeful jilted dentist WAS too good to be true
• Poll: Most Egyptians think US aid billions have 'negative effect'
• London jogger: Dustin Hoffman 'saved my life'

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

A Pakistani airliner crashed just short of landing in Islamabad on Friday, killing all 127 people aboard, the country's Civil Aviation Authority told NBC on Friday.

The Boeing 737 operated by Bhoja Air was flying in from Karachi, the country’s biggest city and business hub, in heavy rain when it broke up, scattering wreckage and bodies across courtyards and roofs of a residential area near the airport, witnesses and authorities said.

"There were 122 passengers and five crew members," said Pervez George, a spokesman for government agency.

---

Bhoja Air had been closed down a decade ago after running into financial difficulties and being unable to make payments to civilian Pakistani aviation authorities. It resumed flying March 6, but Friday’s flight from Karachi to Islamabad was the first on that route since then.

The flight data recorder has been located, NBC’s Fakhar Rehman reported from Islamabad, and the so-called or "black box" was expected to reveal why the plane went down. But the apparent cause was that pilots were flying low under heavy clouds and hit high-tension wires as they approached Benazir Bhutto International Airport, he said.

 

Bhoja Air said the airplane crashed during its approach in Islamabad due to bad weather," Reuters reported. There was no indication from the government that it could have been the result of foul play.

Parts of the aircraft smashed into electricity poles, blanketing the area in darkness.

Rescue workers were trying to recover bodies from the charred wreckage of Flight B4-213, Rehman reported, but darkness and rain were making it difficult.

Police said 70 bodies had been transported to hospitals.

"Kids were playing in courtyard of my house when suddenly we saw something falling in our court yards with fire," said Mumtaz Ali, a resident of Hussain Abad in the outskirts of Islamabad where the plane crashed. "You can see the wreckage on the roof and back yard too. Thank God nobody on the ground was injured or killed as people were inside their homes because of rain."

Islamabad police chief Bani Yameen said nobody on the ground was reported killed, "but apparently all on board perished," according to Reuters.

At the airport people awaiting passengers thronged the airline counter.

A man who had been waiting at the airport for the flight yelled, “My two daughters are dead,'' as tears streamed down his face, according to Reuters, while others awaiting passengers crowded around lists of those on board.

Pakistan army chief vows not to give up on avalanche victims

Nearby, relatives of passengers hugged each other and sobbed. One man cried, "my kids, my kids," Reuters said.

Zarina Bibi was desperately trying to determine if her husband was among the passengers of the ill-fated plane.

"He called me before leaving Karachi, but I don't know if he was on this flight or not," said Bibi told the news agency. 

The last major aviation accident in Pakistan occurred in July 2010, when a commercial airliner operated by AirBlue with 152 people on board crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad.

Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

In 2006, a Pakistan International Airlines aircraft crashed near the central city of Multan, killing 45 people.

In a statement on its website Boeing Company said it "wishes to extend its profound condolences to the families and friends'' of the Bhoja Air passengers.

NBC News' Carol Grisanti contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Sudan leader says he will teach independent South a 'final lesson by force'
• Joint Chiefs' leader: US will not send troops to Syria
• Outrage over video of alleged rape of disabled girl
• Vietnam pleads for help as mystery disease kills 19, sickens 171
• Soccer or sex? Thai teens ponder puzzling choice
• US Black Hawk helicopter with four crew members crashes in Afghanistan
• Lack of leadership to blame for soldiers' bad behavior

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world