Photo: The Antonov-28 Aircraft
Russian authorities have confirmed that all 19 people aboard an Antonov-28 which went missing in the Bakcharsky District of Russia’s Tomsk region on Friday are alive.
The regional branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said the Antonov-28 plane has been found after it went missing on its way from the town of Kedrovy to Tomsk.
It confirmed all 19 people were found alive after two helicopters were dispatched to search for the plane.
According to the officials, survivors were being evacuated from the site.
The plane, operated by regional airline SiLA, made a forced landing after one of its two engines failed, they said.
They had earlier said that the flight crew had not reported any problems before the plane disappeared but the plane’s emergency beacon later activated, signalling it may have crashed.
The Antonov-28 is a small short-range, Soviet-designed turboprop used by many small carriers across Russia and some other countries.
The latest incident comes less than two weeks after a plane carrying 28 people crashed in the far east of the country.
The Antonov An-26 twin-engine turboprop – a similar type of plane to the Antonov-28, missed a scheduled communication and disappeared from radar during its flight from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.
The wreckage was later found on a coastal cliffside and in the sea.
Russian aviation safety standards have improved in recent years but accidents, especially involving ageing planes in far-flung regions, are not uncommon.
The Soviet-era plane type, still used for military and civilian flights in some countries, has been involved in dozens of deadly crashes since it entered service around 50 years ago. (SkyNews)
