All news

Plane crash-lands in Siberian river

 

GORKI, July 11 (ITAR-TASS) - A total of 35 people have been injured as a result of an emergency landing of an An-24 plane in the Ob River, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Five people died as a result of the tragedy, Shoigu said at Monday's meeting chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said the aircraft wreckage had been submerged. Divers work on the spot.

Those who are considered to be missing are likely aboard the crashed aircraft, the minister said.

Earlier, spokesman for the Russian Investigation Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass five people had been killed and the fate of two people remained unclear following the emergency landing of the An-24 plane in the Ob River in Russia's Siberia.

He said there had been 33 passengers on board, including a breastfed child, and four crewmembers.

The An-24 plane of Angara Airlines was on a flight from Tomsk to Surgut and made an emergency landing in the Ob River 63 kilometres away from Nizhnevartovsk at 8:55 am, Moscow time, on Monday. It partially disintegrated during the landing.

According to the vice-governor of the Tomsk region, Yuri Sukhoplyuyev, "the plane landed on a sand spit. Its nose stopped at the bank, while the tail fell off".

Earlier, sources from the Rosaviatsiya Federal Air Transport Agency said the left engine of the plane had caught on fire after which the pilots decided to make an emergency landing.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted on part three of Article 263 of the Russian Criminal Code - "violation of rules of safety and operation of aircraft inflicting the death of two or more people through negligence".

According to the Siberian emergencies ministry, 30 people were hospitalised.