A Russian military transport aircraft crashed in occupied Crimea on March 31, killing all 29 people on board, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Contact with the Antonov An-26 was lost at approximately 18:00 Moscow time during what the ministry described as a scheduled flight over the Crimean Peninsula. Search and rescue teams subsequently located the wreckage, which had struck a cliff in the mountainous terrain of the peninsula. The ministry confirmed that six crew members and 23 passengers were killed, with no survivors reported.
Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti, citing the Defense Ministry, initially stated there was no evidence of external damage to the aircraft. Preliminary assessments attributed the crash to a technical malfunction, though the ministry said a specialized investigative committee had been dispatched to the site and an official determination of the cause remains pending.
Ukraine’s military did not comment on the incident. An air raid alarm was briefly triggered in the Sevastopol area around the time the aircraft disappeared from radar, though its connection to the crash has not been established.
An aging workhorse under pressure
The An-26 is a Soviet-era twin-turboprop designed for short- and medium-haul operations, capable of carrying up to 40 passengers or approximately 5.5 tons of cargo. It has been a long-standing fixture of Russian military logistics and remains in active service despite its age.
Russia has lost several An-26 aircraft in Crimea to Ukrainian strikes in recent months. In September 2025, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) destroyed two An-26s on the ground in a drone attack, describing the operation as part of ongoing efforts to degrade Russian military assets on the peninsula.
A further An-26 was reportedly struck by a Ukrainian drone at the Kacha airbase in December 2025, with Russian channels reporting casualties among ground personnel.
In July 2021, an An-26 went down in Russia’s Kamchatka region, killing all 28 people on board.
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