A fully loaded passenger flight departing from a Kamchatka settlement to the region's capital was abandoned Thursday when the plane got stuck in mud, local officials said.
The L-410 twin turboprop carrying 15 passengers and two crew members sank into the mud at noon as it was taxiing for takeoff at the airport in Ozernovsky, a settlement of about 2,450 people, the regional transportation prosecutor's office said.
The plane, operated by the airline Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Enterprise, was preparing to make the 360-kilometer flight to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
"According to preliminary data, the plane was taxiing from the parking ramp to the runway when it got stuck in ground dampened by rain," the transportation prosecutor's office said in a statement.
No one was injured. The landing gear of the plane, however, was damaged.
A vehicle was sent out to the plane to retrieve the passengers, and they were placed on another plane to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Prosecutors were checking whether the incident was the result of any violations of safety rules.
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