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Russian plane crashes in Siberia, injuring 38 | |
(about 5 hours later) | |
An IL-18 plane belonging to the Russian defence ministry has crash-landed in Siberia, injuring 38 people. | |
Weather conditions were poor and reports said the plane may have been hit by a strong crosswind. | |
The plane was carrying 39 people from the town of Kansk in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region when it went down north-west of Tiksi in the Sakha region. | |
The defence ministry corrected earlier reports that many were killed and said everyone on board had survived. | |
The plane went down in an unpopulated area 29km (19 miles) from Tiksi. Although a strong crosswind was cited as a possible cause of the crash, pilot error was not being ruled out. | |
Rescue in a blizzard | |
Thirty-eight people were taken to hospital, Ria Novosti reported. Four were critically injured and the rest were in a serious condition. It was not clear if the last person on board had been rescued. | |
Officials in Sakha said special hydraulic shears had been used at the scene to prise apart the wreckage in the search for survivors. | |
The plane, on a scheduled flight from Kansk, broke into three pieces as it made an emergency landing. Helicopters were sent to the scene to airlift the wounded to hospital in Tiksi. | |
The rescue operation had been complicated by blizzard conditions, with winds of 15-20m/second, Sakha officials said. | |
The Il-18 dates back to the 1960s and is still used as a military transporter. |