World / Russia Navigator in Russian Plane Crash 'Was Drunk' 47 killed in June disaster By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff Posted Sep 19, 2011 6:31 AM CDT Copied Forensic experts examine a body near wreckage of the Tu-134 plane, June 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Timur Khanov, Komsomolskaya Pravda) The navigator for a Russian passenger flight that crashed in June was “in a condition of alcoholic intoxication,” a rep for the country's top investigative body told state television yesterday. Some 47 people were killed when the RusAir Tupolev-134 hit a highway in northwest Russia just before it was due to land, the AP notes. The navigator, killed in the disaster, is believed to have drunk a glass of vodka before takeoff, the broadcast noted. (Click to read about a deadly weekend crash in Reno.) Report an error