A devastating aviation accident has struck Russia’s remote Amur region, claiming the lives of all 48 passengers and crew aboard a domestic flight. The crash, involving an aging An-24 turboprop operated by Angara Airlines, occurred during a landing attempt under severe weather conditions near the town of Tynda, close to the Chinese border.
According to a statement by Vasily Orlov, the Governor of Amur region, “there were no survivors” among the 48 people on board the ill-fated aircraft. The Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief reported that the plane dropped off radar as it neared its destination in Tynda, and was later found engulfed in flames amid dense forest, roughly 15 kilometers south of the town.
The ill-fated An-24, operated by Siberia-based Angara Airlines, had been on a multi-leg domestic journey, beginning in Khabarovsk, with a stopover in Blagoveshchensk, before heading to its final destination. A Mi-8 rescue helicopter dispatched by Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, spotted the burning wreckage, which was quickly confirmed by the Emergencies Ministry via Telegram.
As TASS news agency reported, preliminary investigations suggest that poor visibility and a crew error during landing might have contributed to the crash. The aircraft had reportedly been attempting a second landing when it lost contact with air traffic controllers and vanished from radar systems.
Xinhua, China’s state-run media, confirmed that one Chinese national was aboard the flight. Images circulated by Russian state media show twisted wreckage strewn across a remote forested area, with smoke rising from the crash site.
Russia’s vast and often harsh terrain, especially in its far eastern regions, continues to pose serious challenges for aviation. While safety standards have improved in recent years, older aircraft and extreme weather still contribute to a troubling number of incidents. The An-24 model itself has a long service history and is considered outdated by modern aviation standards.
The transport prosecutor’s office confirmed that the aircraft was on its second landing attempt, a detail that echoes previous tragedies involving older planes in Russia. Notably, in July 2021, all 28 people on board an Antonov An-26 died in a crash in Kamchatka, and just months later, another An-26 crashed in the Russian Far East, killing six.
Despite advancements, non-fatal aviation incidents such as emergency landings and rerouted flights remain common in Russia, often due to technical faults in aging aircraft still in use across remote areas.
