An aircraft carrying 28 individuals is feared to have actually crashed into the sea after disappearing from radar in a remote location of east Russia.
Rescue groups have actually been released to the Kamchatka peninsula looking for survivors, however it is unclear if anybody has actually been discovered.
The flight had actually triggered from local capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and was heading for the town of Palana in the north prior to losing contact, the emergency situations ministry has actually validated.
Officials stated there are 22 guests on board consisting of a kid, thought to be aged 6, plus 6 team.
Some aboard the flight have actually currently been recognized, consisting of the head of the city government in Palana, Olga Mokhireva, 42.
A representative for the ministry stated: ‘An An-2 airplane has actually vanished from radar.
‘We are trying to figure out what happened.’
Local media stated that the 39-year-old turboprop Antonov entered into problem as it prepared to land some 15 to 20 km from the airport.
Russian news agency TASS reported contact with the aircraft had been lost during landing and the Russian Pacific Fleet was called in to help the search, along with a plane and two helicopters.
A source suggested to the agency the plane could have crashed into the sea, while another told Interfax it may have gone down near a coal mine close to Palana on the west coast of Kamchatka, near the Sea of Okhotsk.
Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin ordered a special commission to find out what had happened to the plane.
The volcanic peninsula is currently hit by raging wildfires but a report said viability was good around the plane’s routing.
A local meteorology centre said weather in the area was cloudy at the time.
The pilot was named as Dmitry Nikiforov, and the co-pilot Alexander Anisimov, 27.
The vanished plane, owned by Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise, was produced in 1982 and has a valid certificate of airworthiness.
The Soviet-era workhorse planes are widely used in remote areas of Russia.
n 2012, an Antonov An-28 plane belonging to Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise crashed into a mountain while flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk and coming in for a landing in Palana.
A total of 14 people were on board and 10 of them were killed. Both pilots, who were among the dead, were found to have alcohol in their blood, Tass reported.
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