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At least 23 people were killed when a Ukrainian air force plane carrying mainly cadets crashed in the east of the country, emergency services said.
The Antonov-26 transport plane was carrying 20 cadets and seven crew members when it crashed last night about 2 km from the Chuguiv military air base, near the city of Kharkiv.
One more body was found under the charred wreckage of the plane earlier today, emergency services said, bringing the death toll to 23. Two people were also injured.
“The search for two more people continues,” the services said in a statement.
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said it was a training flight, but cadets from the Kharkiv National Air Force University were not involved in piloting the plane.
He said in a statement that according to initial information, the officer who was piloting reported the failure of one of the engines, and seven minutes later the plane hit the ground.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Andriy Taran said the plane “probably hit the ground with its wing” and caught fire after that.
“The flight recorder is now on the plane, after analyzing the information that is recorded there, it will be possible to draw conclusions,” the defense minister said, quoting Taran.
The plane’s body burst into flames upon landing and firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze after an hour.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who previously described the accident as a “terrible tragedy”, is due to arrive in the Kharkiv region today.
The region, which borders Russia in the northeast, has declared a day of mourning. Many grieving Ukrainians mourned the victims of the tragedy on social media.
“We send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the cadets, officers and crew killed and injured in the An-26 plane crash,” the US embassy in Ukraine wrote on Facebook.
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