MOSCOW (AP) - Russian media have quoted the pilot of the airliner that burst into flames during an emergency landing in Moscow as saying the plane was without radio communications because of a lightning strike.

Sunday's fire killed 41 of the 78 people aboard the Aeroflot plane. The plane had taken off for Murmansk in stormy weather but quickly turned back for an emergency landing. The plane made a hard landing and flames erupted.

UPDATE: Aeroflot #SU1492 footage shows the Sukhoi Superjet bounced on initial touchdown followed by an even harder 2nd ground contact during which the undercarriage collapsed and a fire broke out. There is no visible fire before that point. pic.twitter.com/eIaqmJk8uC

— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) May 5, 2019

Pilot Denis Evdokimov was quoted as saying by Zvezda TV and the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that "because of lightning, we had a loss of radio communication."

State TV quoted flight attendant Tatiana Kasatnika as saying "We took off, got into a cloud, there was strong hail, and at that moment there was a pop and some kind of flash, like electricity."