A Russian military cargo plane has crashed in the city of Ryazan in the Southern part of the Moscow.
An Ilyushin Il-76 military cargo plane crashed and caught fire while landing near Russia’s western city of Ryazan on Friday, killing four of the nine people on board.
Four crew members died instantly whilst five others sustained injuries and have been hospitalized.
The incident happened during a training flight the defense ministry said in a statement quoted by local news agencies.
The plane was on a training flight without cargo when the crew decided to land because of an engine malfunction but it was partially destroyed when it hit the ground.
“According to preliminary information, four people died as a result of a plane crash in the area of the Mikhailovsky highway in the city of Ryazan,” the regional government’s crisis unit said in a statement, as quoted by the TASS state news agency.
The plane was an Il-76 military transport aircraft, which was first manufactured in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s.
The aircraft crashed into a field close to residential buildings near a highway, causing a fire that has since been extinguished.
No details were given about where the aircraft was headed when it crashed in Ryazan, around 200 kilometres southeast of the Russian capital.
Meanwhile, several military planes have crashed this month near Russia’s border with Ukraine, where Moscow has been engaged in ferocious fighting since invading in late February.
Several military planes have crashed this month near Russia’s border with Ukraine, where Moscow has been engaged in fierce fighting since invading in late February. The army has cited potential technical problems for the previous crashes.
