An Angara Airlines flight carrying 49 people has crashed in Russia’s Amur region near the Chinese border.
The An-24 flight is understood to have vanished from radar and lost contact with air traffic controllers while approaching its destination of Tynda.
The crash site has been located – but an aerial inspection of the wreckage by helicopters dispatched by Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations found no survivors.
However, emergency services said that survivors could still be found during a search of the wreckage on the ground.
Authorities have said the plane’s fuselage was discovered on a mountainside 16km from Tynda airport.
Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement: “During the search operations, the Mi-8 helicopter of the Federal Air Transport Agency discovered the fuselage of the plane, which is on fire.
“Rescuers continue to proceed to the scene of the incident.”
It is understood that of the 49 onboard the Angara flight, six are crew members and five passengers are children.
Vasily Orlov, governor of Amur, wrote in a statement: “All necessary forces and means are involved in searching for the plane.
“I kindly ask you not to trust unverified information.”
The An-24 is a twin turboprop plane that was developed during the late 1950s by the Soviet Union.
