The Soviet-designed twin turboprop plane was found burning on a hillside after losing contact with air traffic control during a second landing attempt
All 48 passengers and crew on board a passenger plane that crashed in Russia’s far east have died, the head of the country’s Amur region said in a statement on Thursday.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said earlier that it had found the burning fuselage of the Soviet-designed twin turboprop prop plane on a hillside south of its planned destination in the town of Tynda, more than 7,000km (4,350 miles) east of Moscow.
The plane, which was operated by the Siberia-based Angara Airlines, had initially departed from Khabarovsk before making its way to Blagoveshchensk on the Russian-Chinese border and onwards to Tynda.
Images of the reported crash site circulated by Russian state media show debris scattered among dense forest, surrounded by plumes of smoke.
