Moscow [Russia], March 13 : 15 people were killed after a Russian military cargo plane crashed near a cemetery in the Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow on Tuesday, as reported by The New York Post. The Il-76 plane went down in the woods after one of its engines burst into flames after take-off, The New York Post reported while citing Russia's Defence Ministry.
There were 15 people, including eight crew members and seven passengers, on board when the military cargo plane crashed. Who the passengers were and where they were headed was not clear. The New York Post reported that dramatic cellphone footage shared on the "112" Telegram channel showed the aircraft with one engine ablaze, rapidly losing altitude. Online news outlets reported that there were no survivors. "At about 1:00 p.m. Moscow time, an IL-76 military transport aircraft crashed during takeoff for a scheduled flight in the Ivanovo region," the Defence Ministry was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency.
The ministry's statement said that an engine fire was the likely cause of the crash. The engine reportedly became engulfed in flames almost immediately after the plane took off from the "Severny" air base. The pilots were said to have attempted to return to the airfield for an emergency landing but could not make it. The crew was at least able to get the burning plane away from a residential area before it crashed in the woods near a cemetery outside the village of Bogorodskoe, reported the Telegram channel "112."
This is the second Il-76 crash since the beginning of the year. On January 24, 2024, the Ukrainian armed forces downed a plane carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. They all died, TASS reported. Another crash took place on June 24, 2022 in Ryazan. Then, five people died and four others were injured. The reason for the incident was an engine failure.
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