Plane with 29 Russian servicemen crashed in Crimea
The plane disappeared from radars around 6 PM. According to Interfax sources, it crashed into a cliff.
Illustrative photo
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported the loss of communication with an An-26 military transport aircraft performing a scheduled flight over annexed Crimea. The incident occurred on March 31 around 18:00 Moscow time. As stated by the ministry, "there was no hostile impact on the aircraft," and technical malfunction is named as the preliminary cause of the accident.
The Ministry of Defense officially reported that 6 crew members and 23 passengers died.
According to a source from the Interfax agency, the plane crashed into a cliff.
The An-26 is a light military transport aircraft used for transporting cargo, personnel, evacuating the wounded, and supplying troops. It can carry up to 5.5 tons of cargo, can operate from short and unprepared strips — and is actively used near the front line because of this.
In addition to the An-26, Russia lost another military aircraft on March 31, as reported earlier. Z-propagandist Fighterbomber reported the crash of a Su-34 fighter-bomber.
Other Z-bloggers write that this plane could have crashed during the repulsion of Ukrainian drone attacks. It is reported that the pilot died, and the fate of the navigator is not yet precisely known. The Ukrainian military portal "Militarny" suggested that the aircraft was performing a combat mission as a carrier of guided aerial bombs. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Air Force of Ukraine have not yet commented on this information.