MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti) – Five people were injured after a small Russian plane caught fire while crash landing in West Siberia, the regional emergencies center reported on Sunday.
The incident occurred at about 12:10 p.m. local time (7:20 a.m. GMT) on Sunday when an Antonov An-2 biplane made an emergency landing after a takeoff on the former runway of Yugorsk-2 urban settlement in the Sovetsky district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area.
“According to updated information, three persons were taken to hospital. One of them later declined hospitalization. Two other persons received medical treatment at the scene of the incident,” the emergencies center said, adding all the other persons were not injured.
Previous reports said there were ten people aboard the plane, including one pilot, and all of them were taken to hospital with injuries.
The plane belongs to the Aeroplan club and there were parachute jumpers aboard the plane, the emergencies center said.
The An-2 first flew as long ago as 1947 and hundreds are still flying in Russia and abroad, powered by the same nine-cylinder radial engine and four-blade propeller as was used in the initial design.
The An-2 is the most widely produced aircraft in history (over 20,000 built). The aircraft is still used for numerous roles including crop-dusting, parachute trainer, light transport, local passenger transport and military roles.
Russia has a chronic need for a new generation of small regional aircraft to service remote communities in areas with poor road and rail links. Regional aviation has fallen into steep decline since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.