Contact Lost with Russia’s Passenger Aircraft with 28 Onboard

A Russian An-26 airplane with 28 people onboard went missing in the Far Eastern peninsula of Kamchatka on Tuesday.

The country’s emergencies ministry said the aircraft, en route from regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana town, lost contact with the air traffic control during the flight.

Search and rescue efforts are underway, Valentina Glazova, a spokeswoman for the local transport prosecutor's office, was quoted as saying by reports.

There were conflicting reports of what may have happened, with one source telling state-owned TASS the plane could have crashed into the sea, and another telling Interfax it may have gone down near a coal mine close to the town of Palana.

The last major air accident took place in May 2019, when a Sukhoi Superjet belonging to the flag carrier airline Aeroflot crash-landed and caught fire on the runway of a Moscow airport, killing 41 people.