Russian military plane crash kills 1, injures 5

MOSCOW – The Russian Defence Ministry says a military transport plane has crash-landed, killing one crewman and injuring five others.

The Defence Ministry said the An-26 belonging to a military flight school crash-landed and caught fire in Balashov, 570 kilometres (355 miles) southeast of Moscow. The plane was landing after a training mission.

The ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that the crash landing could have been caused by the failure of one of the plane’s engines. It said the injured crew members have been hospitalized.

The Antonov An-26 is a twin-engined turboprop transport plane designed in the late 1960s in the Soviet Union. Large numbers have remained in service in Russia and many other countries around the world.