Alexander Galimov, the only surviving player of the Lokomotiv plane crash, died earlier today. He had burns over 90 percent of his body and was being treated by burn specialists at one of, if not the best burn unit in Russia.
"We did everything we could do to change the course of events and to save his life, but unfortunately what we were dealing with were deadly burns," said Andrei Alexeyev, head of the burn centre at Vishnevsky Surgery Institute.
The total number to die in the crash is now 44.
On Saturday, the KHL had announced that Lokomotiv will not play in the 2011-2012 season. Efforts had been made to get a team organized for the year, but team officials made the decision to not field a team this season. Yaroslavl Lokomotiv president Yury Yakovlev made the announcement after meeting Saturday with league officials.
The KHL had said in earlier statements that Lokomotiv would be able to play, but the ultimate decision would be made by the team, not the league. "The final decision is going to be (from) the team management," said KHL vice-president Ilya Kochevrin. "It's not going to be the league or administration or anybody else. It has to be team management because they're the ones who will be responsible for building up the team." Ultimately, team officials decided to wait.
The league did say the opening night contest will be named the Lokomotiv Cup in honor of those who died in the tragedy.
"The main priority now is to take care of the relatives and to pay last tribute to the late players and staff. The other aim is to re-build a competitive team," Yakovlev said, according to Russia Today. "This will take some time as well as requiring human resources. But we are determined to resume participation in the KHL in [2012-13]."
Kochevrin believes the league will ultimately be measured by how it moves forward from this tragedy and should do whatever it can to make players feel as comfortable as possible.
"We really have to derive lessons from what happened," he said. "I think if we deal with those problems and build strength and demonstrate that it's not in vain ... because this is the worst part of it, if it's in vain. It shouldn't be in vain.
"It should bring changes."
Some changes are already taking place. In wake of the tragedy, Aeroflot, a Russian airline, offered to provide better planes for teams to use. It is unknown if teams will take advantage of the offer. This airline is part of the Skyteam that includes Delta, Aeromexico, AirFrance, and KLM among others.
With Galimov's death, only one person (a crew member) survived the crash. His condition has not been reported as changing, which was grave.
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