A cargo door on a Russian plane carrying 31 passengers and crew opened mid-flight on Sunday, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing.
Video posted to the aviation blog FL360aero showed the chaotic scene shortly after the cargo ramp on an Antonov An-26-100 aircraft operated by IrAero had opened, according to a report in The Independent. The aircraft was at an altitude of 9,000 feet after taking off from Magan Airport in eastern Russia en route to Magadan when the door opened. The plane was able to safely land with no injuries to the 25 passengers and 6 crew members.
One of the passengers on the troubled plane, Sergei Lidrik, 33, told the NY Post people had their hats blown off and had to deal with freezing cold as the plane circled briefly before landing safely.
“The flight ended quicker than expected — with the wrong result,” Lidrik said. “People were shocked at first.”
One commenter on social media noted the An-26 is a cargo plane that occasionally carries paying passengers. He described his own experience in an An-26.
“I once was flying in it stashed in between haystacks intended to feed cows in Chukotka,” said the commenter. “One of my weirdest flights ever.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” another commenter noted. “25 people WERE on the plane?”
And yet another commenter wistfully asked if “any oligarchs on board?”
An official from Magan Airport confirmed the incident to the Independent, noting that all passengers and crew were unharmed, and the only losses were “caps off some people’s heads [which] flew into the white void.”
ANTON AFANASEV/SHUTTERSTOCK
The An-26 is a twin-engine turboprop plane built by Russian aviation manufacturer Antonov in the former Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986. The plane has both civilian and military uses, and remains in service today in multiple countries around Asia, Europe, and Africa. The An-26 has a range of up to 1,600 miles and a cruising speed of 270 mph. It normally operates with a crew of five and can carry up to 40 passengers.
Unfortunately, the An-26 suffers from a checkered safety record, with numerous crashes. The plane has also been shot down dozens of times while in use by the military over war zones. The most recent civilian accident took place last April when a Constanta Airlines plane crashed in Ukraine, killing one crew member.
