A Soviet-era Russian Antonov-24 plane – with 30 passengers on board – landed on a frozen river near an airport in Russia’s far east on Thursday due to pilot error, according to the country’s transport accident prosecutors.
Prosecutors explained that the Polar Airlines plane landed safely on the Kolyma River near Zyryanka in the Yakutia region.
A spokesman for the Eastern Siberian Transport Prosecutor stated – in a statement – that the cause of the accident was an error on the part of the crew in piloting the plane, according to preliminary information.
Prosecutors published photos of the plane on a frozen river, and the Izvestia newspaper also published photos of passengers getting off the plane.
“The Antonov-24 plane landed outside the runway at Zyryanka Airport,” Polar Airlines said in a short statement, stressing that there were no casualties.
