Russian military aircraft AN-26 crashes in Crimea killing all 29 on board; technical fault suspected
A Russian military transport aircraft crashed in Crimea on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of all 29 people on board. As per the information, the accident involved an Antonov Design Bureau AN-26 aircraft, which lost contact with controllers before going down in a mountainous area. The aircraft was flying over the Crimean peninsula on a scheduled route when communication abruptly broke on the evening of March 31, TASS news agency reported quoting Russian Defence Ministry.
Aircraft lost contact before hitting a cliff
Officials said the AN-26 military transport plane went off radar around 6 pm on Tuesday (Local time). A source quoted by TASS stated that the aircraft collided with a cliff. Search and rescue teams later located the crash site and confirmed that none of the passengers or crew members survived.
“A search and rescue team has located the crash site of the An-26 aircraft. According to reports from the scene, six crew members and 23 passengers on board died,” the ministry said, as per TASS.
No signs of external attack, technical snag suspected
Initial assessments from the crash site indicated that there were no signs of an external strike or damage from outside forces. As per early findings reported by TASS, a possible technical malfunction is being considered as the most likely cause of the disaster. A specialised investigation committee from the Defence Ministry has reached the site and is examining the debris to determine the exact sequence of events that led to the tragedy.
Aircraft was earlier seized from Ukraine in 2014
According to media reports, this was the same aircraft that Russia had seized from Ukraine in 2014. The AN-26 was a twin-engine turboprop aircraft with the capacity to carry 40 soldiers. It was designed for deploying paratroopers and evacuating the wounded.
The crash occurred while the aircraft was flying over the Crimean Peninsula near the Black Sea. The region is considered highly sensitive from a security perspective, which makes the crash of a military aircraft here a serious concern for Russia. Authorities are currently focused on collecting evidence and recovering the black box from the crash site to determine the exact cause of the accident that claimed 29 lives.
