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46 die in Russian military plane crash
December 6, 1997
Web posted at: 5:12 a.m. EST (1012 GMT)MOSCOW (CNN) -- A military transport plane crashed into a Siberian town shortly after it took off Saturday, killing all 46 people aboard, a Russian defense ministry spokesman said.
The An-124 went down in the streets of Irkutsk-2, about 2,600 miles (4,160 km) east of Moscow, but there were no immediate reports of casualties among residents, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Sixteen crew members and 30 others were aboard the four-engine plane when it went down about eight minutes after taking off from a nearby airfield, said Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Col Nikolai Baranov.
Officials did not say where the plane was flying to, and The cause of the crash was not immediately known. A special commission has been called to investigate the accident. Weather conditions were reportedly good when it fell from the sky shortly before 10 a.m.
The huge jet was transporting two Sukhoi jet fighters. Fire brigades and rescue teams were at the crash site, officials said.
The accident ranks as one of the worst domestic air disasters of recent years in Russia, where air safety standards have been falling due to lack of cash and poor maintenance standards.
Fifty passengers and crew died last March when their charter Antonov-24 craft crashed en route to Turkey.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related story:
- Cargo plane crash kills at least 3 in Italy - October 8, 1996
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