A Russian An-26 military transport
plane crashed into a cliff in Crimea, killing 29 individuals on
board, as a result of a attainable technical malfunction, Russia’s defense
ministry mentioned early on Wednesday, in keeping with information businesses.
TASS information company, quoting the ministry, mentioned communication with the plane was misplaced at about 6 p.m. native time on Tuesday on a deliberate flight over Crimea. The peninsula, lined in sweeping mountains main all the way down to the coast of the Black Sea, was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.
“The defense ministry reported that a search team found the site of the catastrophe,” TASS reported. “According to a report from the site, six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed.”
The ministry report didn’t say how many individuals had been on board, nevertheless it made no point out of any survivors on the An-26, a lightweight tactical military transport that has for many years been a mainstay that can carry cargo and as much as 40 passengers over brief and medium distances.
“There was no impact on the aircraft,” TASS quoted the ministry as saying, implying that objects like missiles, drones and birds weren’t concerned.
“The preliminary cause of the crash is a technical malfunction. A commission from the military is working at the site,” it mentioned.
Russia’s protection ministry didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark exterior regular enterprise hours.
The An-26 has been in service because the late Nineteen Sixties and has additionally been utilized by airways to hold freight, however the mannequin has been concerned in various lethal crashes over the final decade.
A Ukrainian An-26 crashed throughout a technical flight in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia area in 2022, killing one individual. Another plane crashed on a coaching flight in northeastern Ukraine in 2020, killing all however one of many 27 individuals on board.
Eight individuals, together with 5 Russians, had been killed when an An-26 crashed in South Sudan in 2020. Four of 10 individuals on board had been killed when an An-26 crashed on touchdown in Ivory Coast in West Africa in 2017.