Largest turboprop plane on this planet crashes in Russia as 7 crew feared useless

The largest turboprop aircraft in the world, ran by the Russian Military, has suddenly crashed in Russia as the crew are all feared dead.

The transport aircraft, Antonov An-22, was reportedly conducting a test flight after being repairs. The aircraft, which Russian military officials were reportedly getting ready to retire, went down in the Ivanovo region today (December 9).

Reports suggest the plane was quickly diverted to land on water of the Uvodskoye Reservoir in the Furmanovsky District, after being in a built up residential area. Reports suggest the aircraft “disintegrated in mid-air”.

Only fragments of the aircraft were found floating in the water, leaving search and rescue teams fearing that all seven crew members on board have died.

The crew did their best to steer the aircraft away from populated areas until the last moment,” reported Mash news outlet. The plane fell in an uninhabited area.

“The An-22 broke apart into pieces,” reported Shot news.

The cause of the crash was not initially clear as the Russian Defence Ministry said that a commission from the country’s Aerospace Forces was being dispatched to the crash site to establish all the circumstances.

A major search operation involving divers was underway to search for bodies of those on board.

For now the Russians are not blaming sabotage or an external attack as the horror disaster was far from the war zone.

“According to eyewitnesses, the An-22 suddenly began to disintegrate in mid-air, and its fuselage fragments crashed into the Uvodskoye Reservoir near the village of Ivankovo,” reported Kommersant business news outlet.

The An-22, which is 51-year-old, was “the last operational aircraft of this type in the Russian Armed Forces”.

The plane was first flown in 1965 and was for a period the largest plane of its kind in the world.

With a NATO reporting name ‘Cock’, the An-22 has a 187ft length and 210ft wingspan, with four turboprops, each driving contra-rotating propellers.

The aircraft was supposed to have been phased out by last year but remains in use by Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

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