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Four Killed As Russian Military Cargo Plane Crashes

It was learnt that the plane, II-76 military cargo aircraft crashed and caught fire while trying to make a landing in the Russian city.

At least four people have been reportedly killed in a Russian military cargo plane that crashed in the city of Ryazan southeast of Moscow on Friday (June 24), killing four people and injuring five others.

 

It was learnt that the plane, II-76 military cargo aircraft crashed and caught fire while trying to make a landing in the Russian city.

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The aircraft was said to be on a training flight without cargo when the crew decided to land due to an engine malfunction, and it was partially destroyed when it hit the ground, the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by local news agencies.

 

"According to preliminary information, four people died as a result of a plane crash in the area of the Mikhailovsky highway in the city of Ryazan," the regional government's crisis unit said in a statement, as quoted by the TASS state news agency.

 

The defence ministry said the injured crew members were taken to hospital.

 

The plane crashed into a field close to residential buildings near a highway, causing a fire that has since been extinguished, TASS reported.

 

A witness quoted by the Ria Novosti agency said the crash took place at around 4 am local time.

 

No details were given about where the plane was headed when it crashed in Ryazan, around 200 kilometres southeast of the Russian capital.

 

Several military planes have crashed this month near Russia's border with Ukraine, where Moscow has been engaged in fierce fighting since invading in late February. The army has cited potential technical problems for the previous crashes.

 

Ukrainian forces recently shot down a Russian Su-25 FROGFOOT plane and the pilot was subsequently captured. According to British intelligence the pilot has confessed to being a former Russian air force Major, who had taken employment as a Wagner military contractor and had flown several missions during the conflict.

 

Fighting in the east has intensified with Lysychansk’s governor saying Friday that Ukrainian troops repelled a Russian attack on the southern outskirts of Lysychansk, the last fully Ukrainian-controlled city in the region of Luhansk.

 

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