Russian military plane with 15 people on board crashes after engine catches fire during takeoff
A Russian military transport plane with 15 people on board crashed on Tuesday while taking off from an air base in western Russia, the Defense Ministry said. The crash comes just weeks after the same type of plane went down near the Ukrainian border.
The ministry said the Il-76 aircraft with eight crew and seven passengers crashed in the Ivanovo region. It didn't say whether there were any survivors.
Ivanovo Gov. Stanislav Voskresensky offered condolences to the victims' families. He said there was no damage on the ground.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement that an engine fire during takeoff was the likely cause of the crash. It said a team of investigators flew to Ivanovo to conduct a probe.
Russian media broadcast a video showing the aircraft heading down with at least one of its engines ablaze. The video showed a dark plume of smoke in the sky as a helicopter circled, the Reuters news agency reported.
The four-engine Il-76 is a heavy-lift transport plane that has been in service since the 1970s with the Soviet and then Russian air force.
Russia has seen a huge increase in the air and land transport of troops and military equipment across its territory during its two-year offensive in Ukraine.
Tuesday's crash came on a day when the Defense Ministry reported dozens of attacks on Russia by Ukrainian drones. In the past, Ukrainian drones hit some military air bases deep inside Russia.
Military experts have noted that as the number of Russian military flights increased sharply during the fighting in Ukraine, so has the number of crashes.
In January, Russia said Ukraine had downed an Il-76 -- carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war -- near the countries' shared border.
A U.S. official told CBS News at the time that there were no immediate indications that a missile fired from Ukraine had struck the plane, and that it remained unclear whether there were Ukrainians on board the aircraft.
The AFP contributed to this report.