A passenger plane carrying 49 people has suffered a fiery crash in a remote region in Russia’s Far East.
The An-24 twin-turboprop aircraft operated by Angara Airlines dropped off radar as it came into land at Tynda airport in the Amur region earlier today.
Search and rescue parties were dispatched after air traffic controllers lost all communication with the pilots.
They did not report any problems before losing contact, according to Russia’s TASS news service, but weather conditions were poor with low visibility and Tynda is surrounded by dense forest and mountainous terrain.
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.
Videos shared on Telegram by emergency workers showed the smouldering ruins of the plane scattered amid the trees.
‘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.
Of the 49 people on board, six are crew members and five passengers are listed as children.
It is not yet known whether anyone on board survived the impact, but preliminary reports from emergency services suggest everyone was killed, according to RIA Novosti.
‘No survivors have been found from the air,’ an emergency services report said.
The town of Tynda is extremely remote. 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.
The Amur regional government declared that air ambulances had been dispatched along with search and rescue parties to administer medical treatment to survivors.
‘So far, the helicopter with rescuers cannot land in the area of the crash – it is a hard-to-reach area, a mountain slope,’ a spokesperson for emergency services told TASS.
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.
An investigation has been opened by Russian authorities into the cause of the crash.
The An-24 is an ageing propeller aircraft developed in the Soviet Union during the late 1950s as a transport plane.
It has long been converted for civilian purposes and is frequently used as a passenger plane, particularly in remote regions of Russia, where air safety records are poor.
The crashed An-24 was manufactured almost 50 years ago, but recently had its airworthiness certificate extended until 2036, according to Russia’s Lenta news service.
