Plane with 49 Onboard Crashes in Russia’s Far East; Wreckage Located

Moscow: Authorities in Russia have located the wreckage of a passenger aircraft that crashed while carrying 49 people in the country's Far East region, emergency services confirmed on Thursday.

According to regional Governor Vasily Orlov, the Antonov An-24 aircraft was en route from Blagoveshchensk, a city near the Chinese border, to the town of Tynda when it went down. Onboard were 43 passengers, including five children, and six crew members.

However, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry reported a slightly different figure, stating that 48 individuals were aboard the flight, which was operated by Angara Airlines, a carrier based in Siberia. The cause of this discrepancy has not yet been clarified.

The ministry confirmed that the plane's burning fuselage was discovered on a hillside south of Tynda, its intended destination. The transport prosecutor's office said the crash site lies approximately 15 kilometers from the town.

An official investigation has been initiated under charges of flight safety violations resulting in multiple fatalities, a standard legal process in the event of aviation disasters in Russia.

Photos circulated by state media showed charred wreckage strewn across a densely forested area, with smoke rising from the site. Preliminary aerial assessments indicated no signs of survivors, according to unnamed sources cited by the Interfax news agency. Those sources also mentioned poor weather conditions in the region at the time of the crash.

Authorities noted that the aircraft lost contact after attempting a second landing approach.