No Injuries Reported After Explosion From A Major Gas Pipeline In Russia

A Japan Air Lines pilot flying northeast of Moscow saw a fireball reaching as high as 25,000 feet above the ground today, the airline said. A Russian official said the explosion came from a gas pipeline, and that there were no injuries.

The pilot of JAL Flight 408 saw the column of smoke and flames when his Boeing 747-400 was flying over Ukhta, 620 miles northeast of Moscow at 7:10 a.m. (6:10 p.m. EDT Wednesday), said JAL spokesman Shinichi Tajima.

Anatoly Rumentsev, who said he was the civil defense shift supervisor in Ukhta, told The Associated Press by telephone that the fireball came from an explosion in a major gas pipeline 8 miles from Ukhta.

The blast occurred at 2:10 a.m. local time (6:10 p.m. EDT Wednesday) in a major pipeline 8 miles from Ukhta that carries gas produced in the region to other parts of Russia, Rumentsev said.

Emergency crews went immediately to the blast site, in a wooded area, and the fire was extinguished by 4 a.m. (8 p.m. EDT Wednesday), Rumentsev said. He said the cause of the explosion wasn’t known. The pipeline is operated by the Severgazprom gas company.

Residents of Ukhta, a city of 150,000 , rushed into the streets when they heard the explosion, Rumentsev said. The city’s a center of Russia’s oil and natural gas industry.

Last October, an oil pipeline northeast of Ukhta burst, spilling millions of gallons of hot oil on the ground. In another leak reported by the pipeline company Komineft, an aging pipeline spilled 4.3 million gallons of crude oil onto the ground in August.

A dike holding the oil collapsed in October, pouring oil into two rivers.

U.S. authorities have said last fall’s spill could total 80 million gallons, although Russian figures are much lower.