16 killed as Russian plane carrying parachute jumpers crashes

About 16 people have been killed and seven injured after a plane crashed in Russia’s Tatarstan region, the RIA news agency cited the emergency services as saying.

The plane was carrying a group of parachute jumpers, the emergencies ministry was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

Seven people were pulled out alive from the wreckage, it said.

The remaining 15 were “without signs of life”, a representative of the emergency services told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The plane was a Let L-410 Turbolet, which is a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft. The crash took place at about 9:23am (06:23 GMT).

Images published by the ministry showed the aircraft broken in half with a severely dented nose.

The local health ministry said that the seven survivors are in hospital, one is in “very serious condition”, RIA Novosti reported.

Russian aviation safety standards have improved in recent years but accidents, especially involving ageing planes in far-flung regions, are not uncommon.

Last month, an ageing Antonov An-26 transport plane crashed in the Russian far east, killing six people.

All 28 people on board an Antonov An-26 twin-engine turboprop died in a crash in Kamchatka in July.

The country also frequently experiences non-fatal air incidents that result in rerouted flights and emergency landings, usually stemming from technical issues.

Flying in Russia can be particularly dangerous in the vast country’s isolated regions, such as the Arctic and the Far East, where weather conditions are frequently extreme.