A Russian Antonov An-26 military transport plane crashed into a mountainside while flying over the Crimean Peninsula on Tuesday, March 31, killing all 29 people on board. The Russian Defense Ministry’s preliminary assessment attributes the accident to a technical malfunction, with no signs of attack at the scene.
According to the official Russian news agency TASS citing the Defense Ministry’s statement, the aircraft lost contact around 6 p.m. Moscow time on Tuesday (15:00 GMT), while it was on a flight mission over the Crimean Peninsula.
The Defense Ministry later confirmed that search and rescue teams had found the wreckage, stating, “Based on reports from the scene, all 6 crew members and 23 passengers on board have perished.”
The location of the crash was in the rugged terrain of the Crimean Peninsula, situated on the Black Sea and annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukraine maintains that Crimea is its legally “occupied territory.”
Regarding the cause of the crash, the Russian side emphasized that it was not due to hostile action. The Russian Defense Ministry stated, “The aircraft did not suffer external impact.”
This assertion aims to rule out the possibility of a missile strike, drone attack, or bird collision, suggesting the crash was likely caused by a technical malfunction.
The Antonov An-26 is a tactical transport aircraft that has been in service since the late 1960s, serving as a primary model for the Russian military to transport goods and personnel, with a maximum capacity of up to 40 passengers.
However, the safety record of this aircraft model in recent years has been concerning, with several fatal accidents occurring in the past decade. In 2022, an An-26 crashed in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, resulting in one fatality.
In 2020, a similar aircraft crashed during a training flight in northeastern Ukraine, with only 1 survivor among the 27 people on board. In the same year, an An-26 crashed in South Sudan, causing the deaths of 8 people, including 5 Russians. In 2017, there was a landing accident involving an An-26 in Côte d’Ivoire, resulting in 4 fatalities.