SAKHA, Russia: The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday that one of its planes had crashed in northeast Siberia with 39 people on board as it tried to make an emergency landing near a Soviet-era military base.
Russian news agencies reported that nobody had been killed in the incident, but said 32 people had been airlifted to hospital, 16 of whom were in serious condition.
Earlier, unconfirmed reports suggested that there were only five passengers survived in the crash. However, foreign media claims at least 30 deaths in the crash.
The military aircraft took off from Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport on Monday and crashed some 27 kilometers away from Tiksi, a Russian news agency said. The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals.
Sources said that aircraft reportedly had not caught fire after the crash but broke into three pieces.
