(MENAFN) A passenger plane operated by Angara Airlines has crashed near the city of Tynda in Russia’s Amur Region, killing all 49 people aboard, emergency services confirmed Thursday.

The Antonov An-24 twin-engine turboprop was en route from Khabarovsk to Blagoveshchensk and then to Tynda when it went down around 1 p.m. local time. The aircraft reportedly lost contact with air traffic control during its second approach to land. The reason for the aborted initial landing attempt remains unclear.

According to preliminary data, the plane was carrying 43 passengers, including five children, and six crew members. Rescue teams located the wreckage on a wooded mountainside roughly 15 kilometers from Tynda’s airport, where parts of the fuselage were still burning upon arrival.

“There are no signs of survivors,” a regional rescue source told a Russian news paper
Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe under Article 263 of the Criminal Code, citing suspected violations of air transport safety regulations that resulted in fatalities.

Angara Airlines, based in Irkutsk, is known for operating older Soviet-era aircraft across remote regions of Siberia and the Far East. The An-24, first introduced in the 1960s, continues to serve on isolated routes where modern alternatives are scarce.

The airline has not yet issued an official statement. A team of investigators and aviation experts has been dispatched to the crash site.

Footage circulating on Telegram purportedly shows smoke rising from the crash site on a snowy, forested slope, with emergency workers combing through debris scattered across the hillside. Weather conditions at the time of the crash have not been confirmed.

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