A crash of a military plane in eastern Ukraine on September 25th, left 22 people killed and two others seriously injured, announced the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior. Most of the victims were cadets from the Air Force Institute and four are missing.
In the images released by the authorities on social networks, the Antonov An-26 plane was seen partially destroyed and engulfed in flames, next to a road.
“A terrible tragedy,” lamented President Volodymyr Zelensky on Facebook, who announced he would travel to the site on Saturday.
The president ordered “the creation of an urgent government commission to clarify the circumstances and causes” of the catastrophe.
The military transport plane Antonov An-26 it fell when it landed two kilometers from the military airport of Chugev, according to the State Service for emergency situations. The aircraft caught fire after the accident and the fire was extinguished an hour later.
The city of Chugev is about 30 kilometers southeast of Khakiv and 100 kilometers west of the front line that separates the territories under the control of the Ukrainian government from those under the control of pro-Russian separatists.
“According to preliminary information, it was a training flight,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a note. In recent years, several military aircraft have crashed in Ukraine during training flights.
The Antonov An-26 is a light transport aircraft designed in Ukraine in Soviet times. With a length of 24 meters, it can fly at 440 km / h in ideal conditions.
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