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In a tragic incident on Wednesday, a Russian military aircraft crash in the annexed region of Crimea resulted in the loss of six crew members and 23 passengers, as reported by Russian news agencies referencing the Defense Ministry.
The ill-fated An-26 military transport plane was engaged in a routine flight over Crimea, a territory Russia controversially annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The aircraft lost communication with military authorities around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the reports.
On March 31, 2026, the An-26, a Soviet-era turboprop transport plane, met its unfortunate end when it collided with a cliff, as indicated by sources at the crash site to state news outlets Tass and RIA Novosti. The plane is pictured in a file photo taken in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on March 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Na Son Nguyen, File)
The Russian Investigative Committee clarified that the aircraft carried a total of seven crew members and 23 passengers. However, official reports have yet to confirm whether any crew member survived the crash.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said a total of seven crew members and 23 passengers were on board. It wasn’t immediately clear from official statements if one crew member had survived.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is pictured during a meeting on March 30, 2026. Since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, accidents involving Russian military planes have been frequent. (Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
The Investigative Committee said it has launched a criminal probe in connection with flight regulations and a search is underway in a mountainous forested area in the Bakhchisarai district.
The Interfax news agency cited the Defense Ministry as saying a suspected technical malfunction may have caused the crash and that there was no “damaging interference” with the aircraft.
Accidents involving Russian military planes have been frequent since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.
Russian officials inspect a building after an Su-34 bomber military plane crashed into a residential area in Yeysk, Russia, in October 2022, killing 15 people. A military plane carrying crew and passengers crashed into a cliff in annexed Crimea on March 31, 2026, according to Russian officials. (Arkady Budnitsky/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In December, an An-22 military transport plane crashed in Russia’s Ivanovo region, killing seven crew. In October, a MiG-31 fighter jet crashed in the Lipetsk region, while a Tu-22M3 bomber crashed in the Siberian region of Irkutsk in April 2025.
In October 2022, a Su-34 bomber crashed into a residential area of Yeysk, a Russian city on the Azov sea, sparking a massive fire and killing 15 people.