Russia’s Defense Ministry said that a Russian military transport jet crashed while taking off from a location in western Russia, killing all fifteen persons aboard. This tragedy follows a similar jet disaster along the Ukrainian border that occurred only a few weeks ago.
According to the ministry, the Ivanovo area was the site of the accident of the Il-76 aircraft carrying eight passengers and seven crew members. It was unclear whether anybody had managed to survive. The governor, Stanislav Voskresensky, sent his sympathies to the victims’ relatives.
According to a statement from the Defense Ministry, the disaster was most likely caused by an engine fire on takeoff. A group of detectives traveled to Ivanovo to investigate the matter.
Reports indicate that a video that was published by Russian media showed the plane crashing with one engine on fire. The footage showed a black cloud of smoke rising into the sky as the chopper hovered.
Originally built for the Soviet Union and later the Russian Air Force, the heavy-lift, four-engine Il-76 has been used since the 1970s.
The two-year Russian intrusion in Ukraine has resulted in a dramatic rise in the movement of Russian soldiers and military hardware across Russian territory, both by air and land.
The incident occurred on the same day that the Defense Ministry announced hundreds of drone assaults on Russian territory from Ukraine. Drones launched from Ukraine have attacked Russian military air sites in the past.
The number of collisions has risen in tandem with the dramatic increase in Russian military aircraft throughout the conflict in Ukraine, according to military specialists.
In January, Russia claimed that Ukraine shot down an Il-76 transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The 65 Ukrainians who perished in an aircraft accident in Russia’s Belgorod area were given a list by Russian authorities, according to the Ukrainian organization that deals with prisoner swaps.
Relatives of the designated POWs were unable to recognize their loved ones in the crash site images given by Russian officials. Lt. Col. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said that Ukraine did not have any concrete information on the passengers’ identities.
As seen in the wide-spread amateur footage, the jet fell from the sky and burst into flames.
