Six dead after plane crash in Russian far east involving ageing plane

MOSCOW (Reuters) - All six people on board an ageing Antonov An-26 transport plane that crashed in the Russian far east the previous day have been killed, Russia's emergency services ministry said on Thursday.

The plane, which the TASS news agency said belonged to a company that performed technical checks at Russian airports and was 42 years old, disappeared from radar screens on Wednesday.

The emergency services ministry said on Thursday it had discovered the wreckage in hard-to-access terrain and that a rescue team had hiked for more than five hours to reach the location.

"Unfortunately, as a result of the crash there are no survivors," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian aviation safety standards have improved in recent years but accidents, especially involving ageing planes in far-flung regions, are not uncommon. In July, all 28 people on board an Antonov An-26 twin-engine turboprop died in a crash in Kamchatka, also in the far east.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn)