Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Aircraft Vanishes from Radar in Final 30 Seconds

According to flight-tracking data, an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet that is thought to have taken Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin to his death on Wednesday exhibited no signs of trouble until a sharp descent in the last 30 seconds.

One of the ten individuals on board the wrecked jet, according to Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation bureau, was Prigozhin, the leader of an attempted insurrection in June. According to Russia’s emergency situations ministry, it was flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it crashed close to the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver District.

At 3:19 PM GMT, the plane made a “sudden downward vertical” according to Ian Petchenik of Flightradar24. The plane descended from its 28,000-foot cruising altitude of more than 8,000 feet in about 30 seconds.

Whatever occurred, Petchenik noted, “happened quickly.”

Footage captured the aircraft swiftly dropping with its nose practically straight down and a column of smoke or vapor trailing behind it.

To find out what occurred, Russian investigators launched a criminal investigation. Russian media reported that unnamed sources believed the plane was shot down by one or more surface-to-air missiles. Reuters was unable to verify that.

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Neglected Maintenance

The aircraft, which has about 13 seats, has not had any maintenance or support recently, according to Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer SA.

In a statement, the corporation claimed that it had cooperated with the international sanctions put in place against Russia. RA-02795, the same registration as the aircraft that flew Prigozhin to Belarus following the mutiny, was used to identify the luxury jet on Flightradar24, according to a person in the industry with knowledge of the situation.

Before the incident, the aircraft’s position was last detected by the online flight tracker Flightradar24 at 3:11 p.m. GMT. The acquisition of additional location data was presumably hampered by jamming or interference in the region.

Nine minutes of additional data were collected. Before its last, disastrous dive, the plane reportedly made a series of ascents and descents of a few thousand feet apiece over the course of 30 seconds, according to Flightradar24. At 3:20 PM, Flightradar24 received the aircraft’s last set of information.

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Source: Reuters