Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry special flight, which carries the victims of the bus crashed en route from Moscow to Yerevan, has taken off from Moscow-area Ramensk Airfield.

32 passengers injured in the terrible bus accident, Armenian delegation including Armenia’s Minister of Transport and Communication Gagik Beglaryan and Healthcare Minister Armen Muradyan, as well as 17 relatives of the those killed in the crash are aboard the plane. The bodies of the eight casualties are also being transported with the same plane.

Over four dozen people were affected as a passenger bus, which was traveling from Moscow to Yerevan, crashed on Tuesday at around 2:10am local time, in Tula Oblast in Russia.

Seven people were killed on the spot while another passenger died in hospital. Nine of the injured are in serious condition.

There were 59 passengers on the bus, but no children were among them.

The injured were taken to the three nearby hospitals. 

Russia has opened a criminal case into this bus crash, and on charges of “breaking the road traffic and vehicle operation rules.” A similar case has been filed in Armenia, too.

The Tula provincial court on Wednesday handed down a two-month arrest for the driver of the bus, Garnik Harutyunyan. According to the preliminary information, Harutyunyan had fallen asleep at the steering wheel.