Cargo Plane Crash-lands After Running Out of Fuel, Killing at Least Five People
Five people were killed when a cargo plane crash landed having apparently run out of fuel shortly before a scheduled refuelling stop in western Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Alliance plane crashed near the western city of Lviv early on Friday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.
The Antonov-12 plane had sought to make an emergency landing due to a lack of fuel, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy said.
In a post on Facebook, Krykliy added that an investigation into the crash landing of the cargo plane, which was carrying seven crew members and a passenger, is now underway.
He announced that five people had been killed and three others were taken to hospital with injuries. "Condolences to loved ones and family," he said.
The Infrastructure Ministry and a Lviv airport spokesman confirmed that the cargo plane was traveling from Vigo in northwestern Spain to Istanbul and had planned a refuelling stop in Lviv.
The Soviet-designed four-engine plane vanished from radar at 7.10 a.m. local time when it was 8.5 miles from Lviv international airport, Reuters reported, citing emergency services.
One of the crew had called the service at 7.29 a.m. local time to report the emergency landing of the plane.
The plane made an emergency landing near a cemetery in the village of Sokilnyky, said Maksym Sokoliuk, the Chairman of the State Migration Service of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.
The wreck was found at around 7.45 a.m. just a mile from the runway at Lviv airport. The plane did not catch fire when it crashed, according to emergency services.
"The plane was not burning," Ukraine's State Emergency Service said in a statement reported by UNIAN.
"An operation is under way to pull the crew from the damaged aircraft," the service said. It added that 41 workers and seven units of special equipment were involved in the operation.
Lviv airport was closed due to the crash, according to its Facebook page. A post said it was expected to reopen at 10 a.m. local time.
It's not clear what cargo the plane was transporting, but the UNIAN news agency described it as a military cargo plane.
Spanish airport operator AENA confirmed to the Associated Press that the cargo flight UKL4050 operated by Ukraine Air Alliance had departed from Vigo airport just after midnight on Friday. The plane had arrived in Vigo a day earlier from Toulouse, France.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there was no initial indication that any of the victims or survivors were Spanish, according to the Associated Press.
