Ukrainian rescuers at the scene of another Antonov AN-26 crash near Chuguyev city in Kharkiv province in September 2020 in which 26 Ukrainian military personnel, most of them cadets, were killed. File Photo by Sergey Khrupov/EPA-EFE
At least 30 passengers and crew were killed when a Russian military transport plane went down during a routine flight over a remote, mountainous region of Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry and Russian investigators said Wednesday.
Communication had been lost with the AN-26, a twin-engined prop plane made by Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Antonov, before it crashed into a cliff at about 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday with seven crew and 23 passengers on board, said the state-run TASS news agency.
An earlier statement by investigators said there were six crew and 23 passengers.
A defense ministry search and rescue team, which discovered the crash site in a heavily forested, mountainous area about 30 miles northeast of Sevastopol, reported that there were no survivors.
The preliminary cause was attributed to a “technical malfunction” with the defense ministry saying the aircraft was intact when it went down.
The fact that there was no indication of significant damage to the exterior of the aircraft suggested the crash was not the result of a drone or missile strike, The New York Times reported.
A criminal case has been launched by the Russian Investigative Committee, the country’s main federal-level investigating agency, looking at possible breaches of “flight rules or preparatory regulations.”
Military investigators and forensic experts from the committee’s main Crimea directorate and the city of Sevastopol, and the emergencies and interior ministries, remained at the scene and were combing the Bakhchysarai district for evidence.
No mention was made of enemy action and Kyiv has yet to make any comment on the incident.
Crimea belonged to Ukraine until Russia invaded and annexed the strategically vital territory in 2014 in violation of Article 2 of the U.N. Charter and Ukraine routinely carries out strikes against Russian military and energy infrastructure targets on the peninsula.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has steadfastly maintained Crimea must be reunified with Ukraine despite a U.S.-backed peace plan currently on the table recognizing it as part of Russia.
Used by the Ukrainian military as well as Russia, the Soviet-era AN-26 has a patchy safety record with three deadly crashes in the past five years, two in Ukraine and one in Russia, in which 55 people were killed.
The age of the aircraft involved in Tuesday’s crash was unclear but the fact the AN-26’s 17-year production run ceased in 1985 suggests it was at least 40 years old.
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Children race to push colored eggs across the grass during the annual Easter Egg Roll event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on April 21, 2025. Easter this year takes place on April 5. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
