Tatyana Kasatkina, 34, kicked open the Aeroflot plane’s door and pushed people to safety down emergency slides.
Experts said it was “a miracle” 33 passengers and four crew members survived the tragedy on board the Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport yesterday.
The incident claimed the lives of 41 people, including two children and Maxim Moiseyev, a 22-year-old flight attendant.
Dramatic video footage showed the plane, which was fully loaded with fuel, hit the ground and bounce along the runway before exploding.
Ms Kasatkina told how passengers leapt from their seats as the flaming aircraft – which was heading for Murmansk, in northern Russia – careered along the runway at speed.
Mobile phone footage filmed inside the aircraft shows passengers screaming and crying as the cabin melts around them.
Ms Kasatkina said: “It was all so quick. When the plane stopped, the evacuation immediately began.
“Everyone was shouting that we were on fire.
“I kicked the door out with my leg and pushed out the passengers so as not to slow the evacuation. Just to hurry them up, I grabbed them by the collar.”
Ms Kasatkina recalled how it was “hailing heavily” as the plane took off from Moscow then there was “a bang, this kind of flash, like electricity”.
It is thought a lightning strike shortly after take-off knocked out the plane’s radio and electronic guidance systems, forcing the pilots to turn back.
Yesterday, there were claims the rescue operation was hampered by people on board retrieving their hand luggage before exiting the aircraft.
However, there were calls for members of the crew to receive medals for helping so many people escape the inferno alive.
Last night, Russia said there was no reason to ground the domestically produced Superjet, which operates on both domestic and international routes.
But after the tragedy in Moscow, an online petition has been launched demanding the Russian authorities take the plane out of service.
Since the aircraft was first introduced in 2011, there have been a number of concerns over its safety and reliability.
In 2012, a Superjet crashed in Indonesia, killing all 45 people on board and in 2016, all planes were grounded after a defect was found in an aircraft’s tail section.
Interjet Airlines, a low-cost flight operator in Mexico, said on Sunday that it operates five Superjets “under the highest safety standards”.
The company pledged to follow the Russian investigation into the disaster closely.