Passenger plane with 28 onboard goes missing in Russia’s far east

Dhaka: A Russian AN-26 airplane with at least 28 people on board has gone missing in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east on July 6, according to reports.

It was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana in the Kamchatka Peninsula when it did not make a scheduled call-in, the Interfax, local officials said.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control while attempting to land.

Valentina Glazova, a spokeswoman for the local transport prosecutor’s office, said “search and rescue efforts are underway”.

“All that is known at this time, what has been possible to establish, is that communication with the plane was interrupted and it did not land,” Glazova added.

Among the passengers on board are six crew members and 22 passengers, including one child, local officials mentioned.

The plane belonged to a company called Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise. The plane has been in operation since 1982. The company’s director, Alexei Khabarov, said the plane was technically sound.

There were conflicting reports of what may have happened, with one reporting the plane crashed into the sea off the Kamchatka peninsula as it was preparing to land.

Several ships were en route to the crash site, emergency services said, according to one report.

Another meanwhile reported the plane may have gone down near a coal mine close to the town of Palana.

The plane was on approach for landing when contact was lost about 10 kilometers (six miles) away from Palana’s airport. The head of the local government in Palana, Olga Mokhireva, was aboard the flight, spokespeople of the Kamchatka government said.

The weather in the area was cloudy at the time, one reported, quoting the local meteorology center.