Lone Surviving Player in Russia Plane Crash Dies

The lone surviving ice hockey player in last week's Russian plane crash died after a long battle with more than 80 percent burns. With the death of Lokomotiv winger, Alexander Galimov, the death toll of the tragedy has reached 44.

Despite therapy that included all modern treatment methods, Alexander Galimov died in the morning from burns, Moscow's Vishnevsky surgical institute said in a statement on its Web site.

Galimov was one of the two survivors in the plane crash which killed one of the best hockey teams of Russia when it was going to take part in the Kontinental Hockey League in Belarus.

Flight attendant Alexander B. Sizov was the second survivor of the crash.

The Yak-42 aircraft was carrying players for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl -- one of Russia's leading ice hockey teams to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where they were to play against Dinamo Minsk in its inaugural game of the Kontinental Hockey League's 2011 season.

It was the second major air crash involving the Yak-42 aircraft in the past three months.

In June, this year, a passenger jet crashed in city of Petrozavodsk, killing 47 persons.