Russian military transport plane crashes in Crimea, killing all 30 on board
A Russian military transport plane crashed in Crimea, killing all 30 people on board, Interfax reported, citing the Defense Ministry.
Update. Russia’s Investigative Committee later said there were seven crew members and 23 passengers on board. A criminal case has been opened on charges of violating flight rules or preparation for flight.
Contact with the An-26 was lost at around 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on March 31, while the aircraft was on a scheduled flight over Russian-occupied Crimea. The Defense Ministry later said a search-and-rescue team had located the crash site.
“There was no hostile action against the aircraft. The preliminary cause of the crash is a technical malfunction,” the ministry said.
A source at the Russian state news agency TASS said the An-26 had flown into a cliff.
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