Russian plane with 17 passengers on board goes missing in Siberia

An Antonov-28 Russian plane carrying up to 17 people disappeared from radars on Friday while flying over the Siberian region of Tomsk, Russian news agencies cited local officials as saying.

The flight from the town of Kedrovy in Tomsk region to the regional capital of Tomsk was carrying between 13 and 17 passengers, the TASS and RIA news agencies cited local officials as saying.

The reports come less than two weeks after a similar aircraft, an Antonov An-26, crashed into a cliff in poor visibility conditions on the remote Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east, killing all 28 people on board.

An Antonov-28, the same type of plane that has gone missing over Tomsk, slammed into a Kamchatka forest in 2012 in a crash that killed 10 people. Investigators said both pilots were drunk at the time of the crash.

Russian aviation safety standards have improved in recent years but accidents, especially involving ageing planes in far-flung regions, are not uncommon.

Reuters