Surreal,...knowing that those folks are still alive in there at that moment...
Truly.
I guess those big planes can't maintain flight with one of their engines out.
Can't speak for Russian planes, but in the US, in order to be officially airworthy, a twin-engine plane
does have to be able to fly (and even climb, if slowly) with one engine out.
However, if I were in a plane at that altitude with an engine burning that enthusiastically, my attention would not be on climbing at all, but on descending, as quickly as possible under control, to an emergency landing. The chief problem in a situation like that is not lack of power, but the facts that fire heats things up, aluminum softens when it gets hot, and wing spars are made out of aluminum. I'd want to get down before I lost that wing.
