Plane Crashes into Mountain With Children Onboard
The An-24 aircraft was found on a mountainside 10 miles from Tynda in a remote northern region, emergency services told RIA Novosti.
There were 43 passengers on board including, including 5 children and 6 crew members, Vasily Orlov, the governor of Amur region, said.
The fuselage of the plane was spotted during a search mission by a Mi-8 helicopter after the aircraft disappeared from radar.
Video shared on Telegram showed what was thought to be the crash site:
"So far, the helicopter with rescuers cannot land in the area of the crash - it is a hard-to-reach area, a mountain slope," an official told the regional press, according to TASS, the country's state news agency.
The aircraft departed from Blagoveshchensk-a city situated on Russia's southeastern border with China-and was en route to the northern town of Tynda.
This is a breaking news story-more to follow.
Related Articles
Alleged Spy for Russia and Iran Unmasked at US EmbassyUS Spy Plane Sweeps Russia's Western FlankRussia's Economy Wobbles Under Strain of Ukraine WarUS Tracks Russian Military Aircraft Near Alaska
2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Serious safety violations found at Russian airline a month before fatal crash, Izvestia says
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A spot check on Angara Airlines, which operated the Antonov An-24 plane which crashed in Russia's far east on Thursday killing all 48 on board, had uncovered serious safety violations a month beforehand, the Izvestia news outlet reported on Friday. The plane, which was 49 years old, crashed as it prepared to land, in an incident that highlighted the use of old, Soviet-era aircraft and raised questions about their viability, with Western sanctions limiting access to investment and spare parts. Russia's transport ministry said on Friday that aviation and transport regulators would investigate the privately-owned Angara's activities to check if it is complying with federal aviation rules before taking a decision about its future. Vasily Orlov, the governor of the Amur region where the plane came down, said on Friday that investigators were working on the crash site and that there were two main theories about what had caused it: technical failure and pilot error. The plane's black boxes had been recovered and were being sent to Moscow to be studied, he said. Citing documents it had seen from Russia's airline and transport regulators, Izvestia said that transport safety inspectors had carried out a spot check on Angara in June which had uncovered concerns related to the servicing of its planes. Eight of Angara's planes had been temporarily grounded due to the inspection, it said, and four of its technical staff temporarily banned from carrying out technical inspections. Angara and Rostransnadzor, the transport regulator, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters could not independently verify the details of the inspection. Izvestia said that inspectors had drawn attention to the fact that the company's documents had shown that planes had sometimes purportedly been serviced by staff who other documents showed were not working on the relevant days. The standard rules and methods of servicing were also not being followed by staff, some of whom did not have the necessary qualifications for such work, Izvestia said. In one instance, documents showed that a special piece of testing equipment needed to check a plane's control panel had not been physically issued even though other documents showed someone had signed off that the test had been done. "I ask you to present a plan to fix the violations identified, a report about the reasons for them, and measures being taken to ensure they do not occur," a letter from Rostransnadzor, the transport regulator, to Angara sent after the inspection said, according to Izvestia.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business Insider
Russia tried stretching the service life of its aging An-24 planes past 50 years. One just crashed with dozens on board.
A Russian passenger plane that crashed on Thursday was nearly 50 years old and had its service life extended to 2036, according to state media. The Antonov An-24, a twin-propeller aircraft that seats 43 passengers, disappeared at around 1 pm local time in Russia's Amur region, regional transport officials said in a Telegram statement. Russian federal air officials said 42 passengers and seven crew members were on board when the plane crashed on approach to an airport at Tynda, a city in Amur. Regional officials said the plane had failed to touch down once at Tynda and crashed during its second approach. Flying conditions were suitable for passenger aircraft, and no distress calls had been issued at the time of the crash, state media outlet TASS reported. It later wrote that a rescue helicopter observing the crash site found no signs of survivors. As of press time, however, the latest update from Russia's emergency ministry said ground rescuers hadn't reached the site due to "difficult mountainous terrain." The plane, operated by Siberian-headquartered Angara Airlines, was manufactured in 1976, making it 49 years old, according to state media outlet TASS. TASS reported that in 2021, this particular An-24's airworthiness certificate was extended to 2036, which would have allowed it to fly passenger journeys up to 60 years after its maiden flight. An open-source Russian plane registry listed the crashed An-24 as entering operations in February of 1976, making it 49 years and five months old. To compare, major international and US airlines typically phase out aircraft that have been in service for over 35 years. In January, Angara was also one of two Russian airlines that highlighted a need to extend the service life of its An-24s, saying that Western sanctions had limited access to maintenance workers and spare parts for much of its fleet. "We are today working in a market in which there are no alternatives to the An-24 and An-26," Angara deputy CEO Sergei Zorin said at the time, per Reuters. Aviation authorities signed a contract in March to push the aircraft's service life to 60 years. State media also reported on Thursday that the crashed An-24 had sustained damage and equipment failures at least three times in the past seven years. Citing Russia's federal air transport agency, TASS reported that the plane had rolled off a runway in 2018 and clipped a lightning pole with its left wing. The aircraft also returned to an airport in 2019 after its generator failed, while one of its radio sets was reported to have malfunctioned on the tarmac in May 2025. Its approach warning system was also activated once in 2022, per TASS. Still, the state media outlet reported preliminary findings from emergency services that crew error caused the crash, though it did not specify how authorities arrived at that conclusion. Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee, said on Thursday that her office would launch a criminal investigation into the crash.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Russia plane crash leaves 48 dead
A Soviet-era passenger plane crashed in a remote area of Russia on Wednesday, killing all 48 people on board. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the eastern town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk on Thursday when it disappeared from radar at around 1pm local time (5am BST). According to Russian media, the plane, which entered service in 1976, crashed while attempting to land at Tynda Airport. It was said to have failed on its first approach and flown around for a second attempt, when it stopped communicating with air traffic control. A rescue helicopter later spotted its fuselage burning on a forested mountain slope about 10 miles from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Credit: Russian Federal Air Transport Agency Response teams from the region's civil defence agency were dispatched to the site, but found no survivors. Authorities initially reported that 49 people were killed, however this was revised to 48 when it emerged that one passenger, a grandmother, had stayed home to look after her sick granddaughter. A list of the passengers and crew was published in Russian media, which included the 43-year-old stewardess Anastasia Bessmertnaya – whose surname means 'immortal'. Several doctors were killed in the crash, including Galina Naidyonova, an experienced obstetrician-gynaecologist, and Alexey Naidyonov, her a specialist in functional diagnostics. Five children were reported to have been among the dead. Vadim Bazykin, a well-known Russian test pilot, told the Izvestia newspaper that flights on ageing aircraft such as the Antonov An-24 should be banned. 'It seems to me that it would be better to ban flights on such old equipment if we are not able to bring it up to standard. We are simply constantly risking passengers,' he said. Vladimir Putin expressed his 'sincere sympathy and condolences to the relatives, friends, and all the families of those killed in this air crash' while attending a meeting on the development of the Russian submarine fleet. He declared a minute's silence in memory of the victims. A three-day mourning period was announced in the Amur region, its governor said. A criminal case has been opened into the incident, with human error and technical malfunctions considered as possible causes of the crash. Rescuers in the helicopter saw no evidence of survivors, local rescuers said, as the Amur region's civil defence agency said it was dispatching a ground team to the scene. Russian state media reported that the plane was manufactured almost 50 years ago. 'In 2021, the aircraft's airworthiness certificate was extended until 2036,' it said, citing a source in aviation services. The Antonov-24 is a popular, Soviet-designed twin-propeller plane that first entered into service in 1959. Russia has taken steps to switch from Soviet aircraft to modern jets in recent years, but ageing light aircraft are still widely used in far-flung regions, with accidents frequent. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
