Russian Mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Plane Appeared Fine on Radar Until Last 30 Seconds

By Valerie Insinna and Allison Lampert

(Reuters) – An Embraer Legacy 600 government jet, believed to have carried Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to his loss of life on Wednesday, confirmed no signal of downside till a precipitous drop in its remaining 30 seconds, in accordance with flight-tracking knowledge.

Rosaviatsia, Russia’s aviation company mentioned Prigozhin, who led an aborted mutiny in June, was one among 10 individuals on board the downed aircraft. It was touring from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it crashed close to the village of Kuzhenkino within the Tver Area, Russia’s emergency conditions ministry mentioned.

At 3:19 p.m. GMT, the plane made a “sudden downward vertical,” mentioned Ian Petchenik of Flightradar24. Inside about 30 seconds, the plane had plummeted greater than 8,000 ft from its cruising altitude of 28,000 ft.

“No matter occurred, occurred shortly,” Petchenik mentioned.

“They might have been wrestling (with the plane) after no matter occurred,” Petchenik mentioned. However previous to its dramatic drop, there was “no indication that there was something unsuitable with this plane.”

Video confirmed the aircraft descending quickly with its nostril pointing nearly straight downward and a plume of smoke or vapor behind it.

Russian investigators opened a felony probe to find out what occurred. Some unnamed sources instructed Russian media they believed the aircraft had been shot down by a number of surface-to-air missiles. Reuters couldn’t verify that.

Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA mentioned it had not been offering any service or help in recent times to the aircraft, which seats round 13.

The corporate mentioned in an announcement it has complied with worldwide sanctions imposed in opposition to Russia. The posh jet was recognized on Flightradar24 with registration RA-02795, the identical because the aircraft that carried Prigozhin to Belarus after the mutiny, an business supply conversant in the matter mentioned.

On-line flight tracker Flightradar24 final recorded the place of the plane at 3:11 p.m. GMT, earlier than the crash. Jamming or interference within the space in all probability slowed the gathering of additional location knowledge.

Different knowledge continued for 9 minutes. Flightradar24 mentioned the jet went thorough a sequence of ascents and descents of some thousand ft every over 30 seconds earlier than its remaining, disastrous plunge. Flightradar24 obtained its remaining knowledge on the jet at 3:20 p.m.

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna in Washington, Allison Lampert in Montreal; further reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo and Caroline Pulice in Mexico Metropolis; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman)

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