Ilyushin IL-76, a Russian military cargo plane crashed after taking off on Tuesday with 15 people on board due to a fire in one of its engines. According to Russian online news services, there were no survivors. Taking Russia’s defense ministry said that the crash took place in the Ivanovo region.
Soon after the incident, multiple unverified sources surfaced videos on Social media that showed a plane with one engine on fire heading downwards at high speed. A dark plume of smoke was shown rising into the sky as a helicopter circled.
This type of plane has been in use by both the Soviet and Russian air forces. The impeccable timing of the crash occurred on a day when the Defense Ministry reported numerous attacks on Russia by Ukrainian drones. Reportedly the plan carried eight crew members and seven passengers.
In a video posted by the Moscow Times showed the plan on fire-just moments before it crashed. Another purported video posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) shows the plane worth one engine on fire heading downwards and a dark plume of smoke can be seen as the aircrafts crashed.
A Russian military transport plane has caught on fire and crashed in the Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow, media reported Tuesday.
Read more here: https://t.co/E8iUbp9tV5 pic.twitter.com/U0L38rGXaA
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) March 12, 2024
The ministry couldn’t say whether there were any survivors. Ivanovo Gov. Stanislav Voskresensky offered condolences to the victim’s s family also he informed that there was no damage on the ground.
The four-engine IL-76 is a heavy-lift transport plane which has been in service since 70s with the Soviet and then Russian air force.
Military Defense Ministry Statement
As the Defense Ministry said in his statement that an engine fire during takeoff is likely the cause of the crash. It said a team of investigators flew to Ivannovo to conduct a probe.
Russia has seen tremendous increase in air and land a transport of troops and military equipment across its territory during its two year offense in Ukraine. In the past, Ukraine drones hit some military air bases deep inside Russia
Another interesting view of the story is that as the number of Russian Military flights increased during the conflict in Ukraine, so did the number of crashes.
In January, Russia said Ukraine had downed an IL-76, carrying Ukraian POW(prisioners of war) near the countries’ shared border. “No intermediate indications that a missile fired from Ukraine had struck the plane, and that it remained unclear whether thete were Ukrainians on board the aircrafts at that time,” says a U.S. official .
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