If anyone on board insisted on landing despite the conditions because they were in a rush to get to the funeral, that sent everyone on board to their funerals. It might turn out the aircraft itself had nothing to do with the crash.
An A320 or 737NG might be harder to crash, but "Russian plane", "1960's design", etc are always used by the media to sensationalize and exaggerate. Actually the Tu-154 has an average safety record that likely would be a lot better had it been operated by airlines in the West like the 727 and 737 were.
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