In a bizarre incident in Russia’s far east, an Antonov-24, a Soviet-era Russian aircraft operated by Polar Airlines, made an emergency landing on a frozen river near Zyryanka in the Yakutia region.
Russian plane was carrying 30 passengers
In the incident that took place today, the plane carrying 30 passengers crashed due to, in the words of transportation prosecutors, “a mistake made by the crew while operating the plane.”
According to the statements of the East Siberian transport prosecutor, the Polar Airlines An-24 plane made a safe landing on the frozen surface of the Kolyma river near its destination, Zyryanka airport.
In the footage published by Izvestia newspaper, passengers can be seen getting off the plane after the emergency landing.
Polar Airlines confirmed the incident by making a short statement and announced that the Russian plane landed outside the designated runway of Zyryanka airport. Remarkably, the airline also stated that despite the strangeness of the landing, there were no casualties among passengers or crew members.
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As stated by the spokesperson of the transportation prosecutor, the cause of the incident was an error made by the crew in the piloting of the aircraft. The exact details of the error or the specific circumstances that led to the descent into the frozen river have not yet been fully disclosed.
The Antonov-24 is a Soviet-designed twin-engine turboprop aircraft that has been in service for decades. Although the age of the Russian aircraft raises questions about its reliability, cases of aircraft landing in frozen bodies of water are not events we see every day.
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