YAKUTSK, December 19. /TASS/. An Il-18 aircraft with 32 passengers and seven crew members onboard has crashed in the Bulunsky district of Yakutia, a law enforcement source confirmed.
"The Il-18 plane, which flew from the Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg, on Monday, December 19, crashed 27 kilometers from the Tiksi village," the source said.
An evacuation of the victims is ongoing. Yakutia’s government has confirmed the crash.
Nearly 100 servicemen and two Mi-8 helicopters are working at the Ilyushin Il-18 emergency landing site in Yakutia, a source in the regional emergency services told TASS:
"The search and rescue operation involves about 100 servicemen and two Mi-8 helicopters from the Tiksi airbase. The crash landing site has been found, it is located some 30 kilometers from the village of Tiksi."
Survivors in the emergency landing of the plane have been taken to a hospital in the Tiksi village, a local law enforcement source stressed.
"The survivors in the plane’s crash that occurred at 12:07 local time some 27 km from the Tiksi village have been taken to a regional hospital of the village," the source said.
Seven crew members and 32 passengers - a rotating team of officers - were onboard.
Three servicemen are in grave condition after the Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft’s emergency landing in Siberia’s Yakutia, a Tiksi hospital source told TASS.
"Three soldiers are in grave condition, 13 others have sustained medium severity injuries, all the rest are undergoing a medical examination," the source said.