Russian investigators have opened an inquiry into the crash of an Antonov An-24RV in the vicinity of Tynda airport, in the Amur region of the country.
The Interstate Aviation Committee identifies the Soviet-era aircraft involved as RA-47315, operated by Siberian carrier Angara Airlines.
It came down in forest, at around 13:00 local time on 24 July, while operating flight 2311, a Blagoveshchensk-Tynda service that originated in Khabarovsk.
None of the occupants survived, says the Amur division of the emergency situations ministry, which confirmed that rescuers had reached the site of the accident.
It states that the aircraft “disappeared from [radar] screens” and no longer responded to communication.
Amur’s regional government says the An-24 had 48 people on board, comprising 42 passengers and six crew members, citing the airline.
“The aircraft crash site is located in a hard-to-reach area,” it states. “There are no roads to it, so a clearing is being cut to the crash site.
“Rescuers are travelling there using cross-country vehicles. They also intend to use a helicopter to organise access. As soon as weather conditions allow, parachute rescuers will descend to the crash site and prepare a landing site in the forest for the helicopter.”
The country’s transport ministry says the accident location is 32km from the aircraft’s destination.
Russia’s federal Investigative Committee says its eastern interregional transport arm has opened a routine criminal probe into the crash.
Investigators have carried out a search at Angara Airlines’ offices, it says, seizing flight operations and technical information, including pre-flight maintenance documents for the aircraft.
Fuel samples have been obtained from Blagoveshchensk airport, it adds.
“Experienced forensic experts and experts of the department were sent to the scene of the incident, to provide practical assistance in the investigation of the circumstances of the aircraft crash and to carefully record all traces,” it adds.
Angara operates An-24s and An-26s, as well as a number of Mil Mi-8 helicopters. The airline, based in Irkutsk, was also one of the few carriers to use the An-148 twinjet.
While the fleet is relatively small, the carrier has been involved in several serious incidents and accidents in the last few years.
One of its An-24s suffered a fatal landing accident at Nizhneangarsk in June 2019 and, just four months later, an An-148 overran at Mirny.
Another Angara An-24 was badly damaged during a wing-strike upon landing at Ust-Kut in August 2022, and investigators have been probing the nose-gear collapse of an An-24 at Kirensk in May this year.
Angara has been considering a fleet modernisation, looking at types including the Ilyushin Il-114-300 and the under-development UZGA TVRS-44. The aircraft involved in the Tynda accident was originally delivered in 1976 to Aeroflot.
