MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Bodies of all three crew members of Russia’s latest Ilyushin Il-112V military transport plane, which crashed earlier in the day in the Moscow Region, have been recovered, a source in the law enforcement bodies told TASS.

The Il-112V aircraft crashed on Tuesday morning as it attempted to land at the Kubinka airfield in the Moscow Region. The plane missed the landing stripe by 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) and exploded upon its collision with the ground. According to preliminary data, the crash was caused by a fire in the right-wing engine of the plane.

"The body of the third victim was recovered at 18:45 Moscow time [3:45 p.m. GMT]," the source said. "We have recovered bodies of all crew members of the Il-112V aircraft, who were killed in the plane crash. The search work is now officially closed."

The spokesman also said that all recovered bodies have been "transported to a forensic medical examination bureau," adding that investigators continued with their work collecting evidence at the crash scene of the country’s newest military transport aircraft.

The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) reported to TASS earlier in the day that 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.

An aviation industry source told TASS earlier in the day that the crew of the lyushin Il-112V were trying to save the plane until the very last moment and steered the aircraft away from residential buildings. According to him, "The Il-112V plane that crashed today was the first prototype that was undergoing trials and fine-tuning."

"In a critical situation, the crew struggled to save the plane and direct it away from residential buildings," he added.

Il-112V light military transport plane

On August 13, UAC announced that its Il-112V military transport plane touched down in the town of Zhukovsky outside Moscow and would 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 conducted 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 in order to get ready to take part in the 7th Army-2021 international military-technical forum."

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 were proceeding as planned. 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 created in Russia from scratch in the post-Soviet period. Work on the plane’s development has been in progress since 2014 at the Ilyushin Aircraft Company. The Il-112V is capable of carrying up to 5 tonnes of cargo and is designed to transport personnel, military hardware and armaments.

The new light military transport plane has been completely outfitted with domestic components, systems and equipment. Russia is working on the development of the Il-112V to replace its 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 going to roll out the plane in two modifications: one for civilian aviation (Il-112T) and the other for military transport aviation (Il-112V). The plane’s serial production is expected to begin in 2023. The Voronezh Aviation Enterprise where it will be manufactured will have a capacity to produce up to twelve Il-112V planes per year.