In Syria, a Russian transport plane crashed with 39 people on board. Main

The An-26 aircraft crashed when the Khmeimim was landing at the military base. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the plane did not reach the runway about 500 meters. Initially, it was reported that there were six crew members and 26 passengers on board the aircraft, but then the Ministry of Defense clarified that there were 33 passengers. All of them died. According to Mash telegram channel, the plane flew from the Kwaires airport in the suburbs of Aleppo to the base in Khmeimim.

Update. When the An-26 crash, 27 officers were killed, including Major General, as well as warrant officers and contracts under a contract, the Ministry of Defense said . RBC sources report that Major General was called Vladimir Yeremeyev.

The preliminary reason is the technical malfunction. The Ministry of Defense excludes that the plane was shot down, and it is believed that the most likely version of the crash is a malfunction. What kind of malfunction is we talking about is unknown. The main military prosecutor's office began checking. The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under an article on violation of flight rules or preparation for them.

Update. RBC reported with reference to sources in the Ministry of Defense that the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov was at the Khmeimim air base. For what purpose and when exactly he arrived in Syria is unknown.

An-26 plane crash is the largest one-time loss of Russia in Syria. In total, to the present moment, if we take official data, in Syria during the start of a military operation involving Russia in 2015, 82 troops were killed. Almost all of them were killed in military situations or crashed on fallen aircraft and helicopters. It is also known about the death of Russians in Syria, which were not part of the Russian group (for example, the alleged fighters of the private military company Wagner), but there are no accurate data on the number of dead among them.

Another major loss, indirectly associated with Syria, is the collapse of the Tu-154 Ministry of Defense aircraft near Sochi. On board the aircraft were 92 people, including the Alexandrov ensemble, they all died. The cause of the crash was the crew error.

An-26 aircraft have been used since the early 1970s. They are in service with the Russian Air Force, Belarus and other countries of the former USSR. The plane was developed for use in the Armed Forces, it is able to lift up to 5.5 tons of cargo. The Ministry of Defense uses more than 170 An-26, and more than 1400 were released. A little more than 10% of them were lost during various incidents. The last large plane crash of the Russian An-26 occurred in 2002-then 17 people were killed during the landing in Lahta.

Pavel Borisov