Wreckage found in plane crash in Russian Far East

Gulf Today Report

Russian search teams have found wreckage of the AN-26 passenger plane with 28 people aboard that disappeared earlier on Tuesday in Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula.

"Rescuers found the wreckage of the aircraft. Given the geographic features of the landscape, rescue operations are difficult," the aviation agency said in an emailed statement, adding that the debris was found along the region's Pacific coast.

Earlier, contact has been lost with a passenger plane in Russia's Far East, the country's emergencies ministry said on Tuesday.

The AN-26 airplane was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana in the Kamchatka Peninsula when it did not make a scheduled communication, the ministry said.

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The Interfax and RIA Novosti agencies quoted the emergencies ministry as saying that the search and rescue teams were on their way to the area. There were 22 passengers and six crew members on board.

An investigation has been launched, and a search mission is underway. Two helicopters and an airplane have been deployed to inspect the missing plane's route, local officials said.

The plane was on approach for landing when contact was lost about 10 kilometres (six miles) away from Palana's airport. The head of the local government in Palana, Olga Mokhireva, was aboard the flight, spokespeople of the Kamchatka government said.

In 2012, an Antonov An-28 plane belonging to Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise crashed into a mountain while flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk and coming in for a landing in Palana. A total of 14 people were on board and 10 of them were killed. Both pilots, who were among the dead, were found to have alcohol in their blood, Tass reported.