A Russian military plane crashed in Russian-annexed Crimea, killing at least 29 people on board, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday.
“According to reports from the scene, the six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed,” the TASS state news agency said, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. Russia’s Investigative Committee also confirmed the crash but did not initially provide a death toll. The committee later said an An-26 aircraft crashed in flight near the village of Kuibyshevo in the Bakhchysaray district of the Republic of Crimea on 31 March 2026 and that there were seven crew members and 23 passengers on board. It has opened a criminal probe into a possible flight safety violation.
The Antonov An-26 military transport was carrying out a scheduled flight over the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The military lost contact with the plane around 6 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) on Tuesday. Interfax quoted the Defense Ministry as saying the crash was caused by a technical malfunction with no “damaging interference.” State news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti cited sources at the crash site saying the transport plane struck a cliff.
There have been multiple crashes involving Russian military aircraft since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In December last year an An-22 crashed in the Ivanovo region, killing seven crew. In October a MiG-31 crashed in the Lipetsk region during a landing attempt. In December 2024 an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff northeast of Moscow, killing all 15 on board. In October 2022 a Su-34 bomber crashed into a residential area of the southern town of Yeysk.
Edited by: Karl Sexton