Russian rescue services announced on Wednesday that four bodies had been found at the crash site. It was unclear whether there were survivors and how many people were on board at all. Why the plane crashed was not clear.
The Belarusian airline Grodno, which owns the plane, spoke of seven crew members in the plane, as the state agency Belta in Minsk reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk announced that Belarusians were also on board.
Russian authorities said there were at least six people aboard the Yakutsk transport flight. The machine crashed on approach and went up in flames on the ground. Possible violations of the safety regulations in air traffic would be investigated, as the national investigation committee announced on its website. The crash site is about four kilometers from Irkutsk in the area of the village of Piwowaricha.