Ten people lost their lives today in an accident of a private plane in the northwestern Tver region of Russia, reports Anadolu.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private military group Wagner, was among the passengers on the plane, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
“The Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia (Rosaviatsiya) has launched an investigation into the crash of the Embraer plane that took place in the Tver region, the agency said in its statement, adding that the name Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in the passenger list of the downed plane “, TASS news agency reported.
The agency later announced on Telegram that a commission set up on the case had begun an investigation and said there were seven passengers and three crew members on board the plane belonging to MNT-Aero LLC, which it said was traveling from Moscow. in Saint Petersburg.
She said that the commission has started collecting “factual materials on the training of the crew, the technical condition of the plane, the meteorological situation on the flight path, the work of air services and radio-ground equipment”.
“At this stage of the investigation, specialists will also need to look for objective control tools on board for their subsequent decoding and analysis of the black box logs,” it added.
Russia’s Investigative Committee also stated on Telegram that it has initiated criminal proceedings due to “violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport”.
In a later report by the state news agency RIA, which quoted a source from the emergency services, it was said that eight bodies were found at the scene of the accident.
Dmitry Utkin, co-founder of the Wagner paramilitary group, is also said to have been among the passengers on the plane, according to pro-Wagner Telegram channels.
Prigozhin grabbed the headlines in June when he launched an “armed rebellion” against the Russian leadership, which he quickly ended.
