Russia: A passenger plane carrying 49 people has crashed in Russia’s remote Far East region near the Chinese border, according to local authorities. The Angara Airlines flight, en route to the town of Tynda in the Amur region, disappeared from radar and lost contact with air traffic control shortly before it was due to land.
Emergency officials reported that aerial reconnaissance located the wreckage of the An-24 aircraft about 15km from Tynda airport on a forested mountainside. Initial observations confirmed no survivors at the scene, but authorities said the search would continue on foot with hopes of locating possible survivors.
The Soviet-designed An-24, operated by Siberia-based Angara Airlines, was manufactured in 1976, making the aircraft nearly five decades old. On board were 43 passengers, including five children, and six crew members, according to preliminary information shared by Amur region governor Vasily Orlov.
Orlov stated that, “All necessary forces and means have been deployed to search for the plane.” Thick smoke was seen rising from the crash site in video footage released by Russian media, depicting the dense forest where parts of the burning fuselage were discovered.
Russia’s transport investigative committee said both mechanical malfunction and human error are being considered as possible causes.
This marks the country’s first fatal commercial aviation disaster since July 2021, when an An‑26 crashed near Palana in Russia’s far east, claiming all 28 lives onboard. However, aviation analysts have raised concerns about a growing number of non-fatal technical failures across Russia’s airline fleet in recent years.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions, Russia’s aviation sector has faced mounting challenges. These include loss of access to spare parts, grounded foreign aircraft, and difficulties maintaining an ageing fleet. The crisis has hindered efforts to replace Soviet-era and Western-manufactured planes with domestically built alternatives.
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