Six crew members and 23 passengers lost their lives in a tragic incident when a Russian An-26 military transport plane crashed in Crimea, as confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defence. The aircraft collided with a cliff during a scheduled flight over the Crimean Peninsula, according to a source at the scene.
The Russian defense ministry stated that the An-26 lost contact while flying over Crimea due to a suspected technical malfunction, ruling out any hostile fire as the cause of the crash. The ministry’s search and rescue team located the crash site and sadly reported that all 29 individuals on board, including the crew members and passengers, perished in the accident.
In a previous aviation tragedy in December 2025, Russia also faced a fatal military aircraft crash involving an Antonov transport plane. The Antonov An-22 crashed during a test flight near the village of Ivankovo in the Ivanovo region, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members on board. This incident occurred shortly after the aircraft had undergone repair work, indicating it was in post-maintenance testing at the time of the crash.
