TOTitan
29th Dec 2010, 03:53
FYI....I just spotted this on The Kathryn Report:
Russian military flight crash, 11 dead
MOSCOW — A Russian Antonov military cargo plane crashed Tuesday on the border between Russia's Tula and Oryol regions, killing all 11 crew members aboard.
Itar-Tass cited a source from the Russian Defense Ministry's information department as saying the An-22 plane had been flying from Voronezh to Tver when it disappeared from radar screens.
The news agency quoted a Russian law enforcement official as confirming all 11 crew members were dead.
mirogster
29th Dec 2010, 09:15
12 presumed dead in Russian military plane crash
A giant Antonov cargo plane has crashed during a training exercise in central Russia, leaving all 12 military pilots aboard the aircraft missing and presumed dead, officials say.
The Antonov An-22 military plane, carrying the servicemen but no cargo, had been performing a training exercise on its way from Voronezh to Tver in central Russia when it disappeared from radar screens late Tuesday (local time), a spokeswoman for military prosecutors said.
Spokeswoman Natalya Zemskova says the plane's scattered remains were found early Wednesday in a field four kilometres from the village of Troitskoye in the Tula region, with the impact of the crash leaving a five-metre-deep crater in the ground.
"All those aboard died," Moscow-based investigators said in a separate statement, adding local witnesses heard an explosion.
Ms Zemskova, however, says the pilots are presumed dead because officials are still looking for their bodies.
Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the defence minister, says bad weather at the scene is hampering search efforts.
"It's a blizzard and snowing," he said.
Dating back to the Soviet era, the Antonov An-22 is a military cargo turboprop plane and is among the world's largest aircraft.
Ms Zemskova says authorities have opened a criminal probe into the accident, adding, however, it is too early to say what caused the crash.
Accidents involving military aircraft are common in Russia.
Last year, a Tupolev Tu-142 crashed into the sea during a training exercise in Russia's far east, leaving all 11 crew members missing and presumed dead.
- AFP