THE DEADLY plane crash which killed 41 people in Moscow on Sunday was caused by a lightning strike, according to Russian media.

The plane had left Murmansk in stormy weather, but quickly turned back for an emergency landing, bursting into flames as it touched down. Pilot Denis Evdokimov was quoted by Zvezda TV and the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that “because of lightning, we had a loss of radio communication”.

Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told the press that investigators are looking into three main possibilities behind the cause of the disaster - insufficient pilot qualifications, equipment failure, and weather.

Those who escaped leapt out of the Sukhoi SSJ100 airliner down inflatable emergency slides and ran across the tarmac.

Russian transport minister Yevgeny Dietrich said 41 bodies have been recovered from the burned wreckage.

MEANWHILE, thousands of people in Thailand gathered around Bangkok’s Grand Palace yesterday as King Maha Vajiralongkorn ended three days of coronation ceremonies.

Vajiralongkorn succeeded to the throne after the 2016 death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for 70 years.

However, it was not until Saturday’s formal coronation that he was established as the fully-fledged monarch with complete regal powers based on the Southeast Asian nation’s traditions.

Vajiralongkorn is also known as King Rama X, because he is the 10th king in the Chakri dynasty, which began in 1782.

ELSEWHERE, The Israeli military lifted protective restrictions on residents in southern Israel on Monday, while the Hamas militant group’s radio station in Gaza reported a ceasefire, signalling that a deal had been reached to end the deadliest fighting between the two sides since a 2014 war.

The escalation saw 28 people killed and while there was no official ceasefire announcement from either side, the intense fighting over the past two days appeared to come to a sudden halt.

FINALLY, the ex-boss of France Telecom and six other former executives have gone on trial in Paris, accused of moral harassment linked to a spate of employee suicides.

Didier Lombard and his fellow defendants deny tough restructuring measures were to blame for the subsequent loss of lives.

The company, since renamed Orange, is also on trial for the same offence.

Thirty-five staff took their lives between 2008 and 2009.

Some left messages blaming the company.