A passenger aircraft carrying 49 people crashed in a remote forested area of Russia’s far eastern Amur region on Thursday, with authorities reporting no signs of survivors.
The aircraft, an Antonov-24 twin-propeller plane operated by Angara Airlines, vanished from radar around 1:00 pm local time (0400 GMT) while en route from Blagoveshchensk to Tynda. It was attempting a second landing approach when contact was lost.
A rescue helicopter later located the burning fuselage on a mountain slope roughly 16 kilometres (10 miles) from Tynda, officials said.
Video footage released by investigators showed smoke rising from the wreckage amid dense forest, while aerial rescue crews reported no visible signs of survivors. The Amur region’s civil defence agency said 25 responders and five vehicles were dispatched, with four aircraft on standby.
“The main search operations are being conducted from the air due to the challenging terrain,” a rescue official told the TASS news agency.
Governor Vassily Orlov confirmed that 43 passengers and six crew members were aboard the flight, including five children. However, emergency services later said 40 passengers and six crew were on the manifest.
The crash’s cause is yet to be determined. The Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office said the plane had gone around for a second landing attempt before disappearing.
The Antonov-24 is a Soviet-era aircraft that entered service in 1959. The crashed plane was reportedly nearly 50 years old, with an airworthiness certificate extended until 2036, according to TASS.
Despite efforts to modernize its fleet, Russia still relies heavily on ageing aircraft in its vast and remote regions, where aviation accidents remain common.
