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An-26 military transport plane crashes in Central Russia, crew dead

A commission of the Aerospace Forces has been sent to the scene to establish causes and circumstances of the accident

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. An An-26 military transport plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces crashed in Central Russia’s Voronezh Region on Thursday, its crew died, the press service of Russia’s Western Military District said.

"An An-26 plane crashed in the Voronezh Region on February 24, while performing a scheduled flight to transport military cargo. The crew died. There is no damage on the ground. According to preliminary information, the crash was caused by a technical malfunction," the press service said.

A commission of the Aerospace Forces has been sent to the scene to establish causes and circumstances of the accident.

An-26 (NATO reporting name Curl) was designed by OKB-156 (later Antonov Design Bureau) in 1960s, on the basis of the An-24 passenger jet’s transport modification. The aircraft made its maiden flight on May 21, 1969 and entered service on May 26, 1975.

The plane was produced between 1969 and 1986, at aviation plants in Kiev and Ulan-Ude. A total of 1,398 aircraft of this type were produced, and several hundreds of them remain in service to date.