A Soviet-era Antonov-24 plane with 30 passengers and four crew members on board landed on a frozen river near an airport in Russia’s far east on Thursday. Prosecutors said the incident was caused by pilot error.
The Polar Airlines An-24 plane landed safely in the Kolyma River near Zyryanka in the Yakutia region, prosecutors said. “According to preliminary information, the cause of the air incident was an error by the crew in piloting the aircraft,” a statement from a spokesman for the transport prosecutor’s office in East Siberia said.
Prosecutors released photos of the plane over a frozen river. Izvestia newspaper published pictures of passengers disembarking.
“The An-24 plane landed outside the Zyryanka airport runway,” said a brief statement from Polar Airlines.
“There were no casualties during the incident,” it added.