An aircraft carrying 28 passengers crashed in the far east of Russia on Tuesday with no survivors, according to rescue officials cited on Russian news agencies.
Pictures and videos of the cliffside where the plane presumably crashed have been released online.
The Antonov, An-26 twin-engined turboprop was en route from the regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Plana, a village in the north of the Kamchatka peninsula, when it lost contact with air traffic controllers, the emergencies ministry said, and Reuters reported.
Interfax reported the plane was flying with poor visibility conditions and because of this it may have crashed into a cliff while attempting to land.
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The plane’s crash site was found after the emergencies ministry deployed a helicopter and ground teams to look for the missing craft, Russia’s civil aviation authority confirmed.
The plane contained 22 passengers and six crew members. The mayor of Plana, Olga Mokireva, was among the passengers in the crash.
The aircraft had reportedly been in use since 1982, and Russian aviation safety standards have improved in newer planes for when they are flying in cloudy, low visibility areas. However, experts also said that accidents, especially with aging planes, are not uncommon in the region.
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Over the last 50 years, there have been dozens of deadly crashes involving the Soviet-era plane, which is still used for military and civilian flights in some countries.
In 2012 a similar plane, the Antonov-28, slammed into the Kamchatka forest, killing 10 along the same route, but both pilots were intoxicated at the time of the crash.