Plane crashed with 28 people on board in Russian Kamchatka Peninsula

The wreckage of the plane that disappeared Tuesday with 28 people on board in the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east of Russia, were found about four kilometers from the airport where it should have landed, the Russian air agency said.

“Rescuers found remains of the plane,” Rossaviatsia said in a statement sent to AFP, and explained that “the job of rescuers is difficult” because of the geography of the area. The plane was scheduled to land at 3:50 p.m. local time, 5:50 a.m. GMT, but contact had been lost a few minutes earlier.

According to preliminary data, none of the passengers survived the accident, according to what the emergency services told the official RIA Nóvosti agency.

The plane, a Soviet-designed Antonov An-26, was flying from the region’s capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, to the small town of Palana when it stopped broadcasting, he told the AFP Valentina Glazova, spokesperson for the regional public prosecutor’s office in charge of transport. The plane was carrying 22 passengers and six crew members.

The plane was operated by a small local company from Kamchatka, a large peninsula in the far east of sparsely populated Russia.

Russian news agencies, citing local officials, said 28 people were on the plane, including six crew members, with one or two children on board.

After hearing the news got around various hypotheses on the comings and goings of the plane. A source told the state news agency TASS he could have crashed into the sea while another explained to the agency Interfax who probably fell near a coal mine near Palana.

Later, an emergency services spokesperson said that “The presumed place of the fall (of the device) at sea has been identified” and added that “ships have been sent to the area” to carry out research tasks.

The Russian Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) stressed that the weather conditions in Palana at the time of landing were “complicated” and detailed that clouds covered the mountains near the airfield.

Security concerns

Russia, known for its plane crashes, has improved air traffic safety since the 2000s, when the country’s major carriers switched from aging Soviet jets to more modern ones. But there is still a lack of maintenance and lax safety standardsAs a result, the country has recorded several fatal air crashes in recent years.

The latest happened in May 2019 when a Sukhoi Superjet from Russian airline Aeroflot crashed on landing and caught fire on the runway at a Moscow airport, killing 41 people.

In February 2018, a Saratov Airlines Antonov An-148 crashed shortly after takeoff near Moscow, killing all 71 people on board. An investigation determined that the cause of the crash was human error.

Non-fatal incidents are also common in Russia, forcing flights to be diverted or emergency landings, usually due to technical issues.

In August 2019, a Ural Airlines plane carrying more than 230 people made a near-miraculous landing in a cornfield near Moscow after an engine sucked in birds during take-off.

In February 2020, a Utair Boeing 737 with 100 people on board crashed in northern Russia due to a problem with its landing system, with no casualties.

Air travel is also subject to often difficult flight conditions in the Arctic and Far Eastern regions, where planes and helicopters are the most widely used means of transport to reach towns and villages. remote.

(With AFP and Europa Press information)