Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. It is being updated.
A military plane crashed on the night of Sept. 25 in Kharkiv Oblast in eastern Ukraine, near the town of Chuhuiv some 450 kilometers east of Kyiv.
Twenty-five people were killed in the crash, one more died in a hospital. There’s one survivor who’s hospitalized with serious injuries.
An Antonov An-26 transport aircraft carried students of the Kharkiv Aviation University of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
There were 27 people on board, 21 of whom were military cadets, according to the Interior Ministry.
A handout photo of the crash scene of Antonov An-26 military plane on Sept. 25 in Kharkiv Oblast. (State Emergency Service)
Earlier reports said there were 28 people on board but the State Emergency Service said that one trainee didn’t board the plane.
The plane crashed during landing around 9 p.m. and took fire. As of 10 p.m., the fire was put down.
“According to preliminary information, the pilot reported a failure (of one of two engines),” said Oleksiy Kucher, governor of the Kharkiv Oblast.
According to Kucher, the two survivors jumped off the plane when it was still in the air.
An amateur video shows the Antonov An-26 plane that crashed in Kharkiv Oblast on Sept. 25 shortly after the catastrophe. (Facebook)
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will go to the site of the disaster on Sept. 26.
“A horrible tragedy,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook. “We are immediately starting a government commission to investigate what caused it.”
Chuhuiv has a military airfield, the 203 Training Aviation Brigade, where young pilots and technicians are deployed for training. All military pilots in Ukraine are trained at the Kharkiv Aviation Institute, which is located less than 40 kilometers from the crash site.
A handout photo shows the remains of the Antonov AN-26 plane that crashed during landing in Kharkiv Oblast on the night on Sept. 26. The plane carried 28 people, most of them aviation trainees. (President's Office)
The Antonov An-26 twin-engine turboprop military transporter (NATO reporting name Curl) was designed and built in the late 1960s at Kyiv-based Antonov manufacture. It entered service in Soviet Air Forces in 1973, and over 1,400 aircraft of the type were produced.
It is often considered one of Antonov’s most successful designs in the class of military transport aircraft due to its well-proven framework and low operational failure record.
Despite its age, the type is still exploited by numerous militaries around the world, mostly by post-Soviet nations.
The Antonov An-26 plane that crashed in Kharkiv Oblast on Sept. 26, photographed by an aviation spotter. (Oleg Volkov/Spotters Aero)
In Ukraine’s Air Force, which operates nearly 125 various combat, transport, and auxiliary aircraft, deadly aviation incidents are rather rare.In particular, in October 2017, a Ukrainian Air Force’s Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet crashed during Ukrainian-American drill Clear Sky. Both pilots, Ukrainian Ivan Petrenko and American Seth Nehring, were killed.
More aircraft were lost during a hot phase of Russia’s war in Donbas in 2014, where as many as 51 of Ukraine’s Air Force personnel were killed in action. Ukraine lost an Ilyushin Il-76 transporter downed by Russian-backed militants in the sky over Luhansk airport in 2014, with all 49 men onboard killed.
Another Antonov An-26 was also downed in July 2014 near Luhansk (two crew members killed) and near the city of Slovyansk in June 2014 (three people killed).
