Russian plane carrying 28 passengers crashes into sea

The passenger plane carrying over two dozen went missing over Kamchatka and lost contact in Russia’s Far East, news agencies, citing emergency services.

The plane, An-26 was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana on the Kamchatka Peninsula when it failed to make a scheduled call-in.

The report stated that 28 people on board included six crew members and one or two children were among the passengers.

A search involved two helicopters which carried search operations.

It was unclear at that time what happened as early reports were conflicting. However, some conflicting reports about what might have happened, with one source suggested that the plane could have crashed into the sea and another telling Interfax that it may have crashed down near a coal mine near the city of Palana.

Interfax news agency quoted the local meteorology centre as saying that weather in the area was cloudy.