Russian Passenger Plane Crashes Near Tynda, All 49 Onboard Feared Dead

Angara Airlines’ AN-24 vanishes from radar during second landing attempt; no survivors found amid rugged mountain terrain

Russia : A tragic air disaster struck the Amur region in Russia on Thursday as an Antonov-24 (AN-24) aircraft operated by Angara Airlines crashed near the town of Tynda, killing all 49 people onboard, including five children and six crew members.

The aircraft, which departed from Blagoveshchensk, was flying toward Tynda near the Russia–China border when it lost contact with air traffic control shortly before its scheduled landing. According to Interfax and TASS news agencies, the aircraft caught fire mid-air and disappeared from radar while attempting a second approach to Tynda Airport after a failed initial landing attempt.

Wreckage was later discovered approximately 15–16 kilometers from Tynda, on a steep mountainous slope, by rescue helicopters. A spokesperson from the Amur Centre for Civil Defence and Fire Safety confirmed, “No survivors were found when a Mi-8 helicopter surveyed the crash site. The aircraft was destroyed and caught fire upon crashing.”

Emergency crews reported that rescue operations were severely hampered by the remote and inaccessible terrain, marked by dense taiga forests and swampy ground. The aircraft reportedly did not send any distress signal before vanishing, raising serious concerns about the circumstances leading to the crash.

Local governor Vasily Orlov stated, “All necessary forces and resources were deployed as soon as the aircraft was reported missing.” A full-scale search and rescue operation was launched, and now investigators from the Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office have begun a formal probe into the cause of the crash.

The aircraft, which took off from Khabarovsk early Thursday morning, was supposed to land at Tynda after transiting via Blagoveshchensk, but it never made it. Officials believe recovery efforts and black box retrieval may take additional time due to difficult access to the wreckage.

The incident echoes a similar aviation tragedy in the region last year, when a Robinson R66 helicopter went missing during an unregistered flight over the Zeya district in the northeastern Amur region.

As investigations continue, this crash stands as another grim reminder of the challenges of air travel across Russia’s far eastern wilderness.