Russian military plane crashes over Crimea, killing 29

MOSCOW — A Russian military transport plane crashed over the Crimean Peninsula, killing 29 people, the country’s defense ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said in a statement that there were 23 passengers and six crew members on board. “During a scheduled flight over the Crimean peninsula on March 31 at around 6:00 PM Moscow time (1500GMT), communication with the An-26 military transport aircraft was lost,” it said. A search and rescue team located the crash site of the An-26 aircraft, and there were no survivors, it added. TASS news agency, quoting the ministry, ‌said the ‌crash site had been ‌located ⁠in Crimea, a ⁠peninsula jutting into the Black Sea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. “The AN-26 aircraft, with which communication was lost earlier, crashed ‌into a cliff, it was reported to TASS ⁠from ⁠the site of the crash,” TASS news agency reported. RIA news agency said according to an initial assessment, technical problems were believed to have caused the crash. A commission from the ministry is working at the crash site. No evidence of external impact on the aircraft has been found, and the preliminary cause of the incident is a technical malfunction, the ministry said. — Agencies