The aircraft, made in the Czech Republic and of type L-410, crashed about twenty minutes after take-off, according to local authorities, who claim that the crew detected an engine failure.
“Six people were rescued, 16 showed no signs of life”, reported the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in the messaging application Telegram.
The device belonged to a local club of the paramilitary organization DOSAAF, the benevolent aid society for the army, aviation and navy, according to the Russian press agency Interfax.
DOSAAF is the heir to the Military and Scientific Society created in 1920 by the USSR to popularize military knowledge among the Soviets, especially in the aerospace field, and reinforce patriotic values.
Today the society’s flying clubs throughout Russia, such as the one in Menzelinsk, are still used for the training of cosmonauts.
“There was no reproach to make to the Menzelinsk flying club, we are the best, the cosmonauts train here,” said the head of the local DOSAAF branch, Ravil Nurmekhametov, quoted by the official TASS agency.
Only the six paratroopers who were sitting in the back and wearing helmets survivedthe instructor of the local aerospace club, Oleg Chiporov, told the TASS agency.
“A skydiver just had bruises and got off the plane on his own foot,” he said.
All the survivors were hospitalized and one is “in serious condition,” according to the RIA Novosti agency, citing a source from the local Health Ministry.
The accident was caused by an engine breakdown, said the leader of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, who went to the scene.
“When they were at an altitude of 70 meters, the pilots reported that an engine on the left had stopped working and requested an emergency landing,” he said on the public channel Rossia 24.
Según Minnikhanov, the crew tried to move away from the nearby towns for landing, “but apparently the altitude did not allow it.”
One of the plane’s wings landed on a truck and caused it to overturn, he said.
An investigation has been opened for violation of the safety and operating rules of air transport, according to the Russian investigation committee.
Russia has greatly improved aviation safety since the 2000s, but accidents are still common, especially in sparsely populated areas like the Far East.
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