News to hand indicates a modern turbo-prop aircraft - an ATR-72 operated by UTair - was involved in Monday's crash that has so far caused the deaths of 31 people. The European ATR-72 is built by a French-Italian consortium (Aerei da Trasporto Regionale or Avions de Transport Régional) first flew in 1988, making it a far newer generation aircraft compared to the post-war fleet in the ex-USSR. To date over 500 of the type have been built. Link:
http://www.unian.net/eng/news/495552-russian-airliner-crash-kills-31.html