IL-76 gone missing in Russia - Curt Lewis

IL-76 aircraft with 10 people aboard disappears in Russia

An Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft flies during military training on Northern navy on March 16, 2015 in Murmansk, Russia. (GettyImages Photo)

Military plane was used by Russian Emergencies Ministry to extinguish wildfire

A Russian IL -76 with ten people on board has gone missing in the country's Irkutsk region. The military aircraft, designed for carrying cargo, was used to put out a forest fire, Russian Emergencies Ministry reports.

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The institution provides no preliminary information on the potential reasons of the incident. It is stated, all the persons on the plane are the members of the crew. Russia has organized a search operation in the area of the presumed disappearance.

"7 aircraft (5 planes and 2 helicopters) have been dispatched for search operation, as well as ground team of the Baikal Search and Rescue unit and rescue and recovery service of Irkutsk Region", the officials said.

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IL-76, created in 1974, is considered the most popular heavy cargo aircraft in the Russian Federation. Around a thousand planes of this model has been created in Russia in the past 40 years.

Approximately 70 of them were lost overall, a third of that number was destroyed in military operations.