Russian An-26 Crashes in Crimea, Killing 29

A Russian Antonov An-26 military transport aircraft crashed into a cliff in Crimea on March 31, killing all 29 people on board, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. The incident occurred during a scheduled flight over the peninsula, with contact lost at approximately 6 p.m. Moscow time.

Search and rescue teams quickly located the wreckage in the region, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Officials confirmed that the plane carried six crew members and 23 passengers, all of whom perished in the crash. No survivors were reported, and preliminary examinations of the site revealed no indications of external factors, such as impacts from missiles, drones, or bird strikes.

The Defense Ministry attributed the accident to a likely technical malfunction, based on initial assessments from the scene. A military commission has been dispatched to conduct a full investigation into the cause. "Contact was lost with the An-26 military transport aircraft while it was carrying out a planned flight over the Crimean Peninsula," the ministry stated, emphasizing that the aircraft showed no signs of outside interference.

The An-26, a twin-engine turboprop designed in the Soviet era during the...