An Il-76 Crash-Landed in Russia

A Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft crash-landed due to a malfunction shortly after takeoff.

This was reported by the local telegram channel Borus.

At 06:30, the plane took off on the Krasnoyarsk-Ulan-Ude flight, but a few minutes after takeoff, it experienced engine problems, forcing the crew to request a landing at the nearest airfield.

The plane made an emergency landing at the Cheremshanka airfield, which is mainly used by small aircraft, rolling 50 meters beyond the runway.

The published photo credits show that the crash plane has a distinctive livery and weapons in the tail turret, indicating that it belongs to the Russian Aerospace Forces.

According to the Russian media outlet RBC, no one was injured in the crash.

The purpose of the flight is unknown, but Russian military transport aircraft are actively used to transfer personnel and special cargo. In addition, these aircraft are used to transport ammunition and weapons from Iran and North Korea.

Active operation has affected the number of accidents involving these aircraft: in March last year, an IL-76 caught fire in midair and crashed in the Ivanovo region. Another plane burned down as a result of an engine fire during takeoff in 2023.

Militarnyi also reported that five IL-76 transport aircraft were out of service due to the supply of low-quality bearings in Russia.

According to researchers, today the Russian Space Forces has more than 120 operational Il-76 aircraft, which are the main working machine of transport aviation.

Following the intensification of Ukrainian sabotage and drone strikes, Russia has redeployed a significant number of aircraft from the possible strike zone to eastern airfields. For example, in Pskov, where a large number of Il-76s were based, they almost completely disappeared.

According to Sentinel-2 satellite data, Russian aircraft are now moving almost daily to make it harder to detect and destroy them.