Plane crash-lands in Siberian river
Six people have been killed and one more is missing after a plane was forced to make an emergency landing on water in Eastern Siberia.
Twenty survivors have been taken to hospital, and two of them are said to have suffered severe injuries, the Emergencies Ministry reports.According to a source in the hospital cited by RIA Novosti, they “don’t expect the arrival of anymore victims”.There were 37 people on board the Antonov An-24, which got into trouble after reporting a fire in one of its engines.The plane made its landing on the Ob River and was partially destroyed on impact.
Watch footage of the An-24’s crash landing, which was posted on YouTube by user FratriaUA
A search operation is underway and some 20 rescuers have been taken to the crash site by helicopters and boats.The heavily damaged An-24 is still afloat. It will be salvaged and towed away after the rescue operation is over.The Antonov An-24 is a twin turboprop aircraft designed for short and medium range flights in the late 1950s. It has a crew of three to six people and up to 48 passenger seats. About a 1,000 such aircraft have been produced and some 300 are still operational worldwide.After the crash President Medvedev suggested getting rid of the remaining An-24s operated in Russia.“Everything I earlier said about the Tu-134 is equally right for the An-24,” he said.
The president ordered that the process of replacing the old Tupolev Tu-134s be speeded up, after one crashed in the Republic of Karelia in late June killing 47 people onboard.
