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Remains of 11 people found at site of An-2 possible crash

Two hunters, Sergei Skryabin and Alexander Kuznetsov, had spotted the plane
Photo Dmitry Skryabin/ITAR-TASS
Photo Dmitry Skryabin/ITAR-TASS

YEKATERINBURG, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - At the site of a possible crash of An-2 plane, which got missing in the Urals almost a year earlier, rescuers found remains of eleven people, the Urals Federal District’s branch of EMERCOM said on Sunday.

“At the site continues working a group of eight rescuers, eight representatives of the investigative committee and the police,” the source said. “The search is underway.”

The group has confirmed fragments of An-2 and remains of eleven people in the forest. Several tests will be made to clarify the tragedy’s circumstances.

A plane, which looks like An-2 mission in summer of 2012 in the Sverdlovsk region, was found in the Katasminskoye bog, eight kilometres from the city of Serov, Head of the Sverdlovsk regional police’s press service Valery Gorelykh said on Sunday.

He said that two hunters, Sergei Skryabin and Alexander Kuznetsov, had spotted the plane.

“They set their tent, and then saw something in the bog,” Gorelykh said. “At first they took the object for a part of an electric line, but later on they realised those were fragments of a plane.” “The hunters say it was difficult to locate the plane, as most part of it is in the bog.”

On June 1, 2012, An-2 pilot Khatip Kashapov took off without permission from the airfield in the town of Serov. The plane belonged to the Avia Zov Company. There were 12 passengers on board. Aircraft and search parties inspected more than one million square kilometres of terrain in the Perm Territory, the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Kurgan and Svedlovsk regions and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area.