MOSCOW – A cargo aircraft crashed soon after taking off from the eastern Russian city of Mirny in Yakutia region, killing all 11 people on board, Russian prosecutors said yesterday.
The aircraft, an IL-76 belonging to the interior ministry, crashed about 1km from Mirny at the start of a flight to Irkutsk, the investigative committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
Russia has one of the world’s worst air safety records, with elderly Soviet-era planes, dated airport facilities, poor plane maintenance and lax standards contributing to a grim crash toll.
Last year all 88 passengers and crew aboard an Aeroflot Boeing died when the aircraft crashed in near the Ural mountains.
In 2006, 170 people were killed when a TU-154 plane crashed in Ukraine on a flight to St Petersburg. – (Reuters)