MOSCOW (Sputnik) — One soldier was killed and five injured during an An-26 military transport aircraft training flight in Russia's Saratov Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
"The plane caught fire during a hard landing. One serviceman was killed, five crew members were quickly delivered to the medical institution by a search and rescue helicopter," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said preliminary information from the scene indicates the cause of the accident could have been engine failure. A special Defense Ministry commission was dispatched to uncover the causes of the crash-landing on approach to the Balashov airfield.
"The Russian Investigative Committee's Saratov garrison Military Investigation Department initiated a criminal case on the grounds of crime under article 351 of the Russian Criminal Code (violation of the rules for flights and training for them) over the AN-26 aircraft crash," the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement.
According to investigators, the plane crashed from a height of 200 meters (656 feet) after the failure of one of the engines, while landing on an airfield of the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School.
