MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. An An-2 aircraft that went missing in a remote area of the Chukotka Region in Russia’s Far East earlier on Friday has been located, with both co-pilots and one passenger found alive and currently being evacuated, Governor Vladislav Kuznetsov said.

"True, all three people have been found, they are being evacuated right now," the governor said as he pledged to send in updates when more information becomes available.

Earlier, Kuznetsov wrote on his Telegram channel that first responders were mounting a search party to find the captain, who had left the downed aircraft on foot in search of a means to communicate to send a distress signal.

The An-2 airplane operated by the Strizh Avia airlines, with three people on aboard, departed at 1:40 a.m. Moscow time on November 10 (10:40 p.m. GMT on November 9) from the Arctic port town of Pevek bound for the locality of Polyarny, but no contact was made with the aircraft at its scheduled landing time. Kuznetsov later said that the co-pilot and the passenger had been found alive but that they had suffered injuries of varying severity.