Russia cargo plane crashes in Syria, 32 dead
MOSCOW: A Russian military cargo plane crashed as it was descending to land at an air base in Syria on Tuesday, killing all 32 people on board, the Russian defence ministry said.
The Russian military said an An-26, with 26 passengers and six crew members, crashed just 500 metres from the runway. The military blamed the crash on a technical error.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, leases the Hemeimeem military base in Syria, near the Mediterranean coast. The base is far from the front lines of the conflict, but came under shelling in December. The Russian military insisted the cargo plane did not come under fire, while saying it would conduct a full probe.
The military did not immediately identify the victims.
President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the families of those killed in the crash after receiving a briefing by defence minister Sergei Shoigu, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Interfax news agency quoted a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee as saying Russian investigators have been dispatched to Syria to look into the crash.
It was the second Russian military plane to crash in Syria this year, after a Su-25 ground attack jet was struck by a portable air defence missile over the northern Idlib province last month.
The Antonov An-26 is a twinengine transport plane designed in the 1960s in the Soviet Union. Large numbers have remained in service in Russia and many other countries around the world.
The RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday quoted Col Gen. Nikolai Antoshkin, former deputy commander of the Russian Air Force, as calling the An-26 a “reliable machine” even though it has been out of production since 1986. AP