Twelve die when military plane crashes in central Russia

Twelve people were killed on late Tuesday evening when a large Russian Air Force aircraft crashed in central Russia, officials and local media reported.

The Antonov An-22 Cock transport aircraft deployed by the Russian Air Force crashed in the country's Krasny Oktyabr village in the Tula Region. It was on its way to Migalovo airport but radars lost its location at around 9:30 p.m. Moscow time. Around five hours later, the burning remains of the aircraft were discovered near the village.

As rescuers continue to search for evidence that will help reveal the cause of the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry earlier said that a possible equipment failure could have caused the accident. Many military transport aircraft entered service 40 or 50 years ago, and are not considered to be within modern safety aviation regulations.

The black box of the aircraft has since been found, although a recovery operation is ongoing to recover all the remains of the crew members. There were no known casualties on the ground.

Russia has seen several major aviation accidents this year. On March 22, eight people were injured when a large passenger plane crashed on approach to Domodedovo airport after a flight from Egypt. Only crew members were on board the TU-204 Aviastar-TU jet.


And on April 10, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was among 96 people killed when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft crashed near the city of Smolensk in Russia. He was visiting Smolensk for the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn.

Months later, in August, seven people were killed when a Katekavia Airlines passenger plane carrying fifteen people crashed in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region.

And most recently, on December 4, three people were killed and around 40 others were injured when a Tupolev Tu-154 Dagestan Airlines passenger plane crash-landed at Moscow's Domodedovo airport while making an emergency landing after it had lost all three engines during the flight. Authorities said 160 passengers, including several children, and eight crew members were on board.