KHL Flight Tragedy: The World Reacts

News is still coming in slowly about the airline crash that killed 43 people including nearly all players and staff of the Lokomotiv KHL team, in Russia. However, heartfelt stories about the men and their families are popping up. Here are just a  few that will add some humanity to the tragedy:

A heartbreaking blog written by Jeff Chick appeared late yesterday. Warning: this is as about as sad a story as you will read. An except:

"First check of FB is littered with numerous comments and links about the tragic plane crash in Russia. 40+ people dead. NHL players, past and present, coaches, prospects and flight crew. Very sad news. I had been reading and hearing about it, off and on, all day. The ramifications reaching virtually all parts of the hockey world, and in less than 5 minutes, ME."

Over at canoe.ca, Steve Simmons discusses hockey’s saddest summer:

"This summer of hockey sorrow and devastation can’t end soon enough.The assault has been everywhere, painful, widespread, tragic, difficult to comprehend and impossible to grasp. You ease your breath one moment, one day, one circumstance and the next moment you find yourself gasping for both air and meaning: And you can’t seem to find either."

A memorial site has been created where people can leave their memories of the deceased.

Fans in the Czech Republic paid tribute to the Czech players who were killed:

"Czech ice hockey fans paid tribute to the three Czech hockey players on Wednesday (September 7) who were killed in a passenger plane that crashed after take-off from a provincial airport in Russia."

CTV’s news coverage of the crash is here, including comments about plane safety in Russia from former KHL players:

"Ex-NHL defenceman Bryan Muir played 23 games for Dynamo Minsk during the 2008-09 season. On one trip with the team he said he flew on a TU-134A plane that had been built in 1962.“We were kind of sitting there going `Holy smokes’ because you’re used to North America and the standards and everything that goes along with it,” Muir told The Associated Press. “I looked at the doorway and there’s this big crack with the aluminum riveted over the top of it."