At least five people were killed and 30 injured when a Russian Antonov An-24 regional airliner with 36 people on board ditched in the western Siberian Ob river early on Monday following an engine fire, investigators said, according to RIA Novosti.
The Angara airline aircraft landed on the river about 14 kilometers from the town of Strezhevoy in the Tomsk region around 7 a.m. local time, after its crew reported a fire in the port engine and made a decision to carry out an emergency landing.
The police helped evacuate people from the aircraft after it ditched.
The plane was en route from Tomsk to the city of Surgut in the neighboring Tyumen region. The police are conducting a criminal investigation into the breach of air transport operation and flight safety rules.
First flown half a century ago, hundreds of Soviet-designed Antonov An-24 turboprops are still in service, mostly in African and former Soviet countries.
An-24s have been involved in a series of accidents over the past few years, including several fatal crashes.
