July 6 (UPI) — A Russian passenger plane with more than 25 people on board has gone missing over the eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Tuesday, according to state-run media.
The Russian An-26 airplane with 22 passengers and six crew on board was en route from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the village of Palana in far eastern Russia when it stopped communicating, the Russian Emergencies Ministry for the Kamchatka Territory said, TASS news agency reported.
“Communication with the An-26 of the Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise, heading from Petropavlovsk to Palana village was interrupted,” the Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office told the news agency. “The vessel did not land.”
Russia has experienced several major airplane accidents in recent years, including in May 2019 when a burning Aeroflot plane crash-landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in May 2015, killing 41 people.
The worst plane crash in the country’s history occurred on Oct. 31, 2015, when a passenger airliner crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing the 224 people on board.
This is a developing story.