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A military transport plane carrying Air Force cadets crashed and burst into flames near a highway in northeastern Ukraine on Friday night, killing at least 23 people on board, authorities said.
The Antonov An-26 plane crashed while trying to land during a training exercise, Armed Forces General Staff Ruslan Khomchak said in a statement, adding that at least two other people were seriously injured.
Video posted by Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko on Facebook showed the plane burning near a road and smoke rising in the night sky.
Images taken later showed rescuers inspecting the smoldering remains near the city of Chuhuiv.
An investigation into the cause of the accident has been launched.
A pilot reported a failure in the left engine of the twin-engine plane, Oleksiy Kucher, governor of the Kharkiv region, said according to Interfax Ukraine, adding that this would not have been a critical situation for an experienced pilot.
Citing preliminary information, Kucher said that some of the people on board managed to jump out of the plane when it was low.
A witness driving down the road to Chuhuiv told Reuters he saw a burning man getting out of the plane after it crashed.
“Another car pulled up behind us. We grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran with another driver to help him,” said Yaroslav, who only gave his first name.
“Another man came from the plane. He had a cut on his head. We took him to the opposite side (of the road). The one that was on fire, we put it out.”
The accident occurred about 2 km (1.2 miles) from a military airport, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a statement. He said 27 people had been on board the plane.
The cadets were from the Kharkiv Air Force University, which is run by the Ministry of Defense.
“A state commission is being created to identify all the circumstances and causes of this disaster. Search and rescue work continues at the site,” the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy will travel to the area on Saturday.
