The Russian passenger plane that went missing in the eastern parts of the Amur region has been found crashed near the town of Tynda, emergency services told Interfax.
“Fifteen kilometre from Tynda, the wreckage of an An-24 was found on a slope. The plane was destroyed,” the Russian emergencies ministry was quoted as saying by the news agency.
Earlier, it was reported that the An-24 passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people had gone missing in the Amur region.
The Angara Airlines An-24 took off from Khabarovsk as scheduled on Thursday at 7.36am local time (00.36 Moscow time), according to the airport’s press service. The aircraft was operating on the Khabarovsk–Blagoveshchensk–Tynda route but vanished from radar and stopped responding to calls just a few kilometres from Tynda airport.
“The An-24 plane was flying along the Khabarovsk-Blagoveshchensk-Tynda route. It failed to pass security checks near its final destination. There is no contact with it,” the emergencies ministry earlier said.
Regional governor Vasily Orlov said on Telegram that initial reports indicated the Siberia-based airline called Angara was carrying 43 passengers, including five children, along with six crew members onboard.
“All necessary forces and means have been deployed to search for the plane,” he wrote.
The emergencies ministry said there were about 40 people on board, according to Reuters.
Interfax reported that the plane vanished during a second landing attempt, after an initial approach to Tynda airport was unsuccessful.
A source was quoted as saying by Tass news agency: “An An-24 operated by Angara Airlines failed to make contact at a designated checkpoint a few kilometres from Tynda Airport.”
Tynda is located approximately 6,600km east of Moscow.
Last year in September, a Robinson R66 helicopter with three people on board went missing in Russia’s Amur region during an unregistered flight over the Zeya district in the northeastern part of the Amur region.
