16 killed as light plane carrying skydivers crashes in Russian town of Menzelinsk, 6 survivors have been hospitalised

A turboprop plane carrying skydivers, with 22 on board, has crashed near the town of Menzelinsk in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan on Sunday, killing 16 people and injuring six others, the local health ministry has reported.

The Czech-built L-410 light aircraft, which belonged to a local aero club, hit the ground immediately after takeoff, witnesses said. Its hull was destroyed by the impact, while the tail section mostly remained intact.

“As a result of a crash, 16 people were killed, while six wounded were hospitalized in medical institutions in the republic by ER vehicles and air medical aircraft,” Aleksey Kuznetsov, an aide to Minister of Health, said. The injured were in critical condition, he added.

The Emergencies Ministry had earlier put the death toll at 15, saying that  seven others had been rescued from the wreckage.

There were 22 people on board the aircraft, 20 of whom were skydivers.

Some previous reports had claimed there were 23 people on the ill-fated plane, but local media reported that a relative of one of the victims had been mistaken for a passenger after arriving at the scene and falling ill before requiring hospitalization.

The L-410’s crew informed air traffic controllers that one of the plane’s two engines had failed shortly after takeoff, Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of Tatarstan, revealed. The pilots had tried to steer the aircraft away from residential areas to avoid casualties on the ground, he said, adding that it had hit a parked truck with its wing before crashing.

The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft, which has been produced in the Czech Republic since the early 1970s.

In September, a similar aircraft crashed in Irkutsk Region in southeastern Siberia. Four people were killed and 12 others were injured in the incident.

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