Rescue teams in Russia have located the wreckage of an Angara Airlines An-24 aircraft that went missing just 16km (10 miles) from its intended landing site in the far-eastern Amur region.
The aircraft, which was transporting 43 passengers and six crew members, had departed from Blagoveshchensk, a city near the Chinese border and was nearing Tynda airport when it vanished from radar, according to emergency authorities.
Amur region governor, Vasily Orlov, confirmed that “all necessary resources” had been mobilized for the search operation.
He also revealed that five children were among those aboard the flight.
Soon after, the Russian emergencies ministry reported that a civil aviation helicopter had discovered the aircraft’s burning fuselage.
According to reports from the Tass news agency, Amur’s civil defence centre stated the aircraft was found on a hillside roughly 16km from Tynda.
Emergency response units are said to be en route to the crash location.
The ill-fated flight was completing its final segment on a route that began in Khabarovsk, a city situated in Russia’s far south-east.
