The worst scenarios are already being studied in Russia when all contact was lost with a plane in the east of the country. The aircraft has 28 passengers on board, Russian news agencies said Tuesday citing national security services.
The AN-26 was on the link between Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Palana, in the Kamchatka Peninsula, when it stopped transmitting its reconnaissance signals, explained the Interfax and RIA Novosti agencies. Among the 28 people on board are six crew members and one or two children. Two helicopters were mobilized to search for the device which, according to various sources, could have been damaged at sea or crashed to the ground near a coal mine near Palana.
Many previous accidents
Russia has long suffered from a bad reputation for aviation safety. Poor technical maintenance and lacking rigorous safety rules have left a lasting mark on the Russian aeronautics sector. The last serious accident dates from May 2019 with the forced landing of a Sukhoi Superjet of the national company Aeroflot which had caught fire on the runway of a Moscow airport, killing 41 people.
In February 2018, a Saratov Airlines AN-148 crashed shortly after takeoff near Moscow, killing all 71 people on board. An investigation had determined that human error was at the root of the accident. Air transport is also subject to often difficult flight conditions in remote areas of the Arctic and the Far East.