MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Rescue work is currently underway at the scene of the crash site in the Moscow Region, where Russia’s latest Ilyushin Il-112V military transport plane with three crew members on board crash landed earlier in the day, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) told TASS.

"The plane was piloted by chief pilot of the Ilyushin Aircraft Company, 1st-class test pilot, Hero of Russia Nikolai Kuimov, 1st-class test pilot Dmitry Komarov and 1st-class test flight engineer Nikolai Khludeyev," a spokesman for the UAC, which is part of the Rostec state corporation, stated.

"The fate of the crew is still unknown and rescue works are underway," the spokesman added.

The UAC press office reported earlier that the Il-112V military transport plane crashed upon its landing near the Kubinka airfield outside Moscow. According to various unconfirmed reports, the accident was caused by a fire in the right-wing engine.

On August 13, the UAC announced that the Il-112V military transport plane made a flight to the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow and will be unveiled to guests of the Army-2021 forum. According to last week’s statement, "The first prototype of the Il-112V new light military transport plane made a flight on August 13 from the Voronezh Aviation Enterprise (within the UAC’s transport aviation cluster of Rostec) to the Ilyushin Company’s base in the suburban town of Zhukovsky to prepare for participation in the 7th Army-2021 international military-technical forum."

Il-112V light military transport plane

Chief Designer of the Ilyushin Company (part of the United Aircraft Corporation within Rostec) Sergey Ganin told TASS in late July that the trials of the Il-112V military transport plane proceeded according to schedule. He added that the Il-112V would eventually renew the fleet of Russian light military transport aircraft that mostly consisted of An-26 planes.

The Il-112V is the first military transport plane developed in Russia from scratch in the post-Soviet period. The work on the plane’s development has been going on at the Ilyushin Aircraft Company since 2014. The Il-112V is capable of carrying up to five tonnes of cargo and is designated to transport personnel, military hardware and armaments.

Completely domestic components, systems and equipment were used to develop the new light military transport plane. Russia is developing the Il-112V to replace An-26 and An-24 turbo-prop planes. The Il-112 performed its debut flight on March 30, 2019, and took to the skies for the second time two years later. Russia is developing the plane in two modifications: for civil aviation (Il-112T) and for military transport aviation (Il-112V). The plane’s serial production is expected to begin from 2023. The Voronezh Aviation Enterprise will have a capacity to produce up to 12 Il-112V planes a year.