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A PASSENGER plane has crashed into a remote mountainside, with all 49 people on board – including five children – now feared dead.
The An-24 aircraft, almost 50 years old, disappeared without a trace as it battled low clouds and driving rain on its second approach to land at Tynda airport in Russia’s far-flung Amur region.
It had been flying the Khabarovsk–Blagoveshchensk–Tynda route when it vanished.
Emergency officials then confirmed the worst fears when the burning wreckage of the plane was discovered nine miles from the airport.
The fuselage was found ablaze, said the Ministry of Emergency Situations, after an Mi-8 rescue helicopter spotted the crash site amid dense forest and mountainous terrain.
There were no immediate signs of survivors.
A search party has since gone out by foot to reach the crashed plane.
The doomed flight had earlier taken off from Blagoveshchensk after a two-hour delay.
It was the plane’s final leg before landing in Tynda when it disappeared without warning.
Emergency services told Interfax: “The An-24 plane was flying the Khabarovsk-Blagoveshchensk-Tynda route.
“Near the final point, it failed to check in. There is no contact with it.”
The Antonov An-24 is a twin turboprop designed in Kyiv in the 1950s during the Soviet era.
But it is still in use across Russia despite its age and a series of past accidents.
Russia has long faced criticism over poor aviation safety standards, especially in remote regions with ageing aircraft and limited infrastructure.
A criminal case has now been opened by Russia’s Investigative Committee for Transport to determine the cause of the crash.