Russian Military Plane Crashes In Siberia, 16 Seriously Injured

The Russian Defense Ministry says one of its planes has crash-landed in northern Siberia.

Everyone survived but 32 people were hospitalized, including 16 in grave condition.

The Ilyushin Il-18 made an emergency landing about 30 kilometers from an airfield near the town of Tiksi in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) early on December 19, the ministry said.

The Il-18, a propeller plane designed in the 1950s, had taken off from an air base in Kansk in the Krasnoyarsk region with 32 passengers and seven crew.

Aleksei Kolodeznikov, the deputy head of the regional government, was quoted as saying that high winds may have forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing.

The Defense Ministry said military investigators were flown to the crash site.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP and the BBC