A passenger plane carrying 48 people crashed in Russia, leaving no signs of survivors. The An-24 aircraft with Angara Airlines plummeted into a forest in the Amur region, according to the BBC.
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Russian Plane Crash Kills All 48 Passengers, Including Five Children
All 42 passengers and six crew members reportedly did not survive the accident. The plane left from Blagoveshchensk near the Chinese border, but suddenly vanished from radar visibility after nearing Tynda airport.
A helicopter went to search for the plane and spotted the crash site. They could see smoke rising from the demolished plane on a remote hillside just 10 miles from Tynda.
“Initial information indicates there are no survivors,” a source told TASS, a Russian news agency. “Rescue helicopters have been unable to land at the crash site due to the challenging mountainous terrain. The area remains engulfed in flames.”
It allegedly took rescuers about an hour to even reach the scene of the crash due to the difficult, swampy terrain.
Air traffic control reportedly lost contact with the aircraft around 1 PM local time. The plane attempted a go-around procedure, which happens when an aircraft aborts its landing. This was the moment they lost contact with the passenger plane.
In response to the horrific tragedy, Amur’s regional governor Vasily Orlov has declared three days of mourning. This is also because five children were aboard the plane.
Possible Cause Of Devastating Plane Crash
Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the aircraft to crash. Officials believe it may have been due to poor weather conditions, or it could’ve been mechanical malfunctions.
We know that at the time of a crash, there was a cloud low to the ground. Furthermore, since the plane had already failed one landing attempt at the airport, bad visibility and weather could’ve played a factor.
The BBC reported that this plane was nearly 50 years old. It was also originally created in Kyiv during the Soviet era. Despite its old age, officials confirmed the plane passed recent technical inspections.
Still, the civil aviation authority spoke up to outlets about some disturbing incidents. It mentioned how the plane was involved in four incidents since 2018. Seven years before this crash, its left wing got damaged after it hit a lightning mast due to overrunning a runway.
Not only that, but other An-24 planes have fatally crashed in the past. For instance, an Angara An-24 collided with the Ob River in Siberia. This resulted in seven passenger deaths. Then, in July 2019, an An-24RV aircraft veered off the runway, crashing and killing two flight crew members.