Russia —
A private jet crashed in Russia on Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board, emergency officials said. The name of the head of the mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is listed on the passenger list, but it is not yet clear whether he was on the ill-fated plane.
The jet carrying three pilots and seven passengers en route from Moscow to St. The Petersburg ship crashed more than 100 kilometers north of the capital, officials quoted by Russia’s Tass news agency said. Citing emergency officials, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported that eight bodies were found at the crash site.
Flight tracking data reviewed by the Associated Press (AP) news agency shows a private jet, registered as belonging to Wagner and once used by Prigozhin, took off from Moscow late on Wednesday.
The jet’s transponder signal disappeared a few minutes later. The signal was lost in a rural area where there was no airport nearby to allow the jet to land safely.
Images posted on proWagner’s social media account showed the burning wreckage, showing part of the plane’s tail number which matched the company’s private jet.
The color, and the placement of the numbers on the engines of the crashed plane, matched previous photos of the Wagner jet examined by the AP. (ka/lt)
