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The An-26 military transport plane was carrying out a scheduled
flight over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally
annexed from Ukraine in 2014, the reports said. The military
lost contact with the plane around 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Soviet-designed military transport turboprop aircraft
crashed into a cliff, sources at the scene told state news
agencies Tass and RIA Novosti.
Russia's Investigative Committee said a total of seven crew
members and 23 passengers were on board. It wasn't immediately
clear from official statements if one crew member has survived.
The Investigative Committee said it has launched a criminal
probe in connection with flight regulations and a search is
underway in a mountainous forested area in the Bakhchisarai
district.
The Interfax news agency cited the Defense Ministry as saying a
suspected technical malfunction may have caused the crash and
that there was no “damaging interference” with the aircraft.
Accidents involving Russian military planes have been frequent
since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.
In December, an An-22 military transport plane crashed in
Russia's Ivanovo region, killing seven crew. In October, a
MiG-31 fighter jet crashed in the Lipetsk region, while a
Tu-22M3 bomber crashed in the Siberian region of Irkutsk in
April 2025.
In October 2022, a Su-34 bomber crashed into a residential area
of Yeysk, a Russian city on the Azov sea, sparking a massive
fire and killing 15 people.
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