A search was launched today for a Russian passenger plane carrying up to 17 people that disappeared over Siberia.
The Antonov An-28 passenger plane vanished from radars today while flying over the Siberian region of Tomsk, according tothe Russian Emergencies Ministry.
The plane run by regional airline SiLA was flying from the town of Kedrovy in Tomsk region to the regional capital of Tomsk.
It was carrying between 13 and 17 passengers according to the TASS and RIA news agencies.
The region's governor Sergei Zhvachkin said two helicopters had been dispatched to search for the plane, according to Sky News.
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The flight crew hadn't reported any problems before the plane disappeared, officials added.
But the plane's emergency beacon activated, signalling that the aircraft had a forced landing or crashed.
"Communication was lost to the An-28 plane from the company Siberian Light Aviation," said an emergency services spokesman.
One report said an emergency beacon signal “indicates that the An-28 could have made an emergency landing or crashed in Bakcharsky district”.
The reports come less than two weeks after a similar aircraft, an Antonov An-26, crashed into a cliff, killing all 28 people on board.
That plane crashed in poor visibility conditions on July 6th on the remote Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's far east.
In 2012 an Antonov-28 slammed into a Kamchatka forest in a crash that killed 10 people.
Investigators said both pilots were drunk at the time of the crash. Russian aviation safety standards have improved in recent years.
However, accidents, especially involving ageing planes in far-flung regions, are not uncommon.
