A passenger plane with 43 passengers and six crew members onboard has crashed in Russia’s far-eastern Amur region, with rescue services confirming the discovery of its wreckage. The Angara Airlines An-24 aircraft disappeared from radar approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) from its destination at Tynda airport.
The ill-fated plane had departed from Blagoveshchensk, a city near the Chinese border, and was on the final leg of a route that began in Khabarovsk. Emergency officials reported the An-24 vanished as it made its approach to Tynda.
Amur’s regional governor, Vasily Orlov, had earlier confirmed that “all necessary resources” were deployed in the search for the missing aircraft, noting the tragic detail that five children were among those onboard. Shortly after the plane’s disappearance, a Russian civil aviation helicopter located a burning fuselage on a hillside.
According to the Amur civil defence centre, the wreckage was found about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Tynda, as reported by Tass news agency. Emergency services are now making their way to the challenging crash site to conduct further operations.
