Sukhoi Superjet plane crashes in Moscow region, killing three crew members

A Sukhoi Superjet 100NEW-95 plane crashed near Kolomna in the Moscow region, SHOT and RIA Novosti report. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, three crew members were killed, and there were no other casualties.

According to SHOT, the plane took off for testing from the Zhukovsky airfield. Kolomna Mayor Alexander Grechishchev writes in a Telegram channel that there were two pilots and a navigator on board.

As Telegram channel 112 adds , the crashed plane belonged to the Gazprom-Avia company; it disappeared from radar at 15:00.

The Telegram channel "Aviatorschina" published a video in which the deputy head of Rosaviatsiya Andrei Dobryakov tells someone from the Ministry of Industry and Trade that the plane flew without permission from the Tretyakovo airfield in Lukhovitsy near Moscow. It is not in the register of civil aviation airfields.

A TASS source in the aviation services said that the failure of the systems of the crashed Superjet 100 could have been caused by birds getting into the engines.

Updated at 21:05. Information was added that the plane probably took off without permission and birds could have gotten into its engines.