Russian passenger plane crashes, killing all 28 people on board

The wreckage of a missing turboprop aircraft has been found in Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula.

The Antonov-26 plane, which apparently crashed on Tuesday morning into a rocky mountainside, was carrying 28 including 6 crew. None are believed to have survived.

Reports carried in Russian state media said the debris was found 4 km (2.5 m) from the plane’s destination, the village of Palana in the north of the remote peninsula. The Russian made, twin-engined plane was due to land at just before 1pm local time, but lost contact with air traffic control shortly before final approach.

Olga Mokhireva, the head of the local government in Palana, was aboard the flight, the spokespeople of the Kamchatka government said.

A probe into the incident has been launched and several ships were en route to the crash site, RIA quoted emergency services as saying.

The plane belonged to a company called Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise. Two helicopters and an airplane have been deployed to chart the missing plane’s route.

AFP quoted Valentina Glazova, spokesperson for the local transport prosecutor’s office, as saying that: “All that is known at this time, what has been possible to establish, is that communication with the plane was interrupted and it did not land.”

Air traffic control lost contact with the airplane about 10 kilometres (6 miles) away from the Palana airport.

The plane has been in operation since 1982, but Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise’s director Alexei Khabarov told Interfax news agency that it was technically sound.

(With additional reporting from agencies)