Passengers on doomed Russian plane film 'fumes' in the cabin and mock the 50-year-old aircraft for being 'so old' - before it plunged into a forest killing all 49 on board

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Passengers on a doomed Russian plane filmed fumes filling the cabin before it plunged in to a forest, killing all 49 passengers on board.
The An-24 twin-turboprop aircraft operated by Angara Airlines dropped off radar as it came into land at Tynda airport in the mountainous Amur region at 1:00pm local time (0400 GMT).
Before its flight there were reports of technical problems on the aircraft that needed repair before its final takeoff.
The plane, almost 50 years old, had flown from Khabarovsk with a stopover in Blagoveshchensk but crashed en route to its final destination of Tynda.
Passengers who disembarked in Blagoveshchensk - where repairs were carried out - showed footage of 'steam' or 'smoke' or 'fumes' in the cabin.
In the video clips, the travellers could be heard mocking the antiquated planes flying in Vladimir Putin 's skies.
One woman's voice said: 'This time we're flying on an even worse one…
'I'm flying. It's so old, it's just f***ed.'
The An-24 twin-turboprop aircraft operated by Angara Airlines dropped off radar as it came into land at Tynda airport in the mountainous Amur region at 1:00pm local time (0400 GMT)
Footage also shows a leak into the cabin on the first leg of its final flight.
It is unclear if this was harmless water vapour on the twin turboprop An-24, but it appeared to concern the passengers who labelled it 'steam' or 'smoke' or 'fumes'.
There was an unscheduled delay of two hours before the plane flew on to Tynda on its final journey from Blagoveshchensk.
Aircraft maintenance engineer Alexey Lysenko, 29, killed in the crash, reportedly told colleagues during the stopover 'that the aircraft had arrived with some kind of technical fault'.
He reported this to his colleagues.
His brother said that there were attempts to fix the issue but other difficulties incuding with the weather also delayed its flight.
He said: 'They were trying to resolve it. Then there were issues with the weather — they weren't given clearance to take off right away, so there was a delay.
'After about two hours, they departed.'
It is unclear if the fumes were harmless water vapour on the twin turboprop An-24, but it appeared to concern the passengers who labelled it 'steam' or 'smoke'
It is unclear what these technical problems were but a crash investigation is underway.
The plane was confirmed to have gone down after helicopters dispatched by Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations spotted remnants of the plane's fuselage on a mountainside some 16 kilometres from Tynda.
All 49 people on board were reported killed, according to the ministry.
Footage shared to Russia's Telegram messaging app by onlookers on the forest floor showed the plane soaring dangerously low over the tree line as it made its final approach.
Weather conditions were poor with low cloud and rain, but the pilots did not report any problems to air traffic control before losing contact.
Videos shared on Telegram by emergency workers riding in rescue helicopters showed the smouldering ruins of the plane scattered amid the trees. The fuselage looked to have completely broken apart and caught fire upon impact.
'During the search operations, the Mi-8 helicopter of the Federal Air Transport Agency discovered the fuselage of the plane, which is on fire. Rescuers continue to proceed to the scene of the incident,' a statement from the Ministry read.
Subsequent images from the scene showed the plane had effectively disintegrated, with debris strewn over a large area.
Of the 49 people on board, six were crew members and five passengers were listed as children.
Search and rescue parties were dispatched after air traffic controllers lost all communication with the pilots, who were named as Captain Vyacheslav Logvinov and co-pilot Kirill Plaksin.
Among the passengers was well-known thoracic surgeon Dr Leonid Maizel, 71, from Khabarovsk Regional Clinical Hospital.
He was joined by Dr Galina Naidyonova, an obstetrician-gynaecologist, and her husband Dr Alexey Naidyonov, a functional diagnostics doctor.
Their 14-year-old grandson was also flying with them and is believed to have been killed.
Other passengers feared dead include primary school teacher Elena Velikanova and chemical and biological technologist Natalia Shiyan.
The town of Tynda, home to roughly 30,000 people, is extremely remote and is surrounded by dense forest and mountainous terrain.
It is located some 5,170 kilometres (3,213 miles) east of Moscow and just 273 kilometres (169 miles) from the Chinese border.
The doomed plane had taken off earlier today from the eastern city of Khabarovsk and landed for a brief layover in Blagoveshchensk before continuing on to Tynda.
It underwent a technical inspection while on the runway at Blagoveshchensk's Ignatyevo airport and was found to be technically sound, according to emergency services.
However, Vadim Bazykin, a distinguished Russian test pilot, said the An-24's airframe and avionics had not been modified for many years.
'I think it would be better to ban flights on such old equipment if we are unable to bring it up to standard,' he said.
'We are simply putting passengers at risk all the time.'
The An-24 is an ageing propeller aircraft developed in the Soviet Union during the late 1950s as a transport plane and was subsequently converted for use by passenger airlines.
The doomed aircraft's tail number - RA-47315 - showed it was built in 1976 and was operated by Soviet flag carrier Aeroflot before the 1991 collapse of the USSR.
It was subsequently bought by the Siberia-based private airline Angara, which operates 10 An-24s built between 1972 and 1976, according to the RussianPlanes web portal.
Angara was one of two Siberian airlines that last year asked the Russian government to extend the service life of the Antonov aircraft as Russian planemakers scramble to plug the gap left by an exodus of foreign manufacturers.
The Amur regional government declared that air ambulances had been dispatched along with search parties to administer medical treatment in the case that anyone had survived.
Vasily Orlov, Governor of Amur, wrote in a statement: 'All necessary forces and means are involved in searching for the plane. I kindly ask you not to trust unverified information.'
A hotline for relatives of passengers has been set up by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Orlov added.
At least one Chinese national was on the flight, state media in China reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
'I would like to express my deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the families of the victims,' Xi said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Authorities have launched a probe on the charge of flight safety violations that resulted in multiple deaths, a standard procedure in aviation accidents.
Nicknamed 'flying tractors', An-24s are regarded as reliable workhorses by the Russian aviation industry and are well-suited to the harsh conditions in Siberia as they are able to operate in sub-zero conditions and don't have to land on runways.
But airline executives, pilots and industry experts say the cost of maintaining the aircraft - which make up a fraction of Russia's fleet of over 1,000 passenger planes - has increased after Western sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine hit investment and access to parts.
Many of the planes were due to be retired from service in the coming years, but regional airlines are trying to keep them flying until a replacement enters into service as they say there is no alternative until then.
Mass production of the new Ladoga aircraft, the same class as the An-24, is not due to begin until 2027 at the earliest.