Russian crew members are believed to be onboard a plane that vanished off radar and crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Russian diplomats told state media Friday.
A cargo plane carrying eight passengers and crew, including DRC presidential staff, crashed in a forest in the country’s east on Thursday. The Antonov An-72 transport aircraft crashed in a forest and broke apart upon landing.
“We found out that Russian citizens whose names are being established were among crew members,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Natalya Kononova, an official at Russia’s Embassy in the DRC, as saying.
Debris of the plane has been found but the passengers are still missing, said Congolese presidential adviser Vidiye Tshimanga.
The cause of the accident was not yet clear.
Reuters contributed reporting to this article.
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