49-Year-Old Angara Airlines Antonov AN-24 Crashes In Russia, Killing 48

It’s a sad day for aviation, as a commercial airliner crashed, killing dozens…

Airliner crashes following go around in Eastern Russia

This accident happened today (Thursday, July 24, 2025), and involves an Angara Airlines Antonov An-24 that was operating the 353-mile flight from Blagoveshchensk (BQS) to Tynda (TYD), located near Russia’s border with China.

Specifically, the flight was operated by a 49-year-old aircraft with the registration code RA-47315, and the flight was on behalf of Aurora Airlines, with flight number HZ2311.

The plane was on final approach to Tynda’s runway 6, when the aircraft performed a go around. There was no communication with the aircraft following that, as the plane briefly went missing. However, burning wreckage was found around 15 kilometers from the airport, at the slope of a mountain.

There were 48 people onboard, including 42 passengers (including five children) and six crew members. Sadly there were no survivors. At the time of the accident, visibility was good, winds were light, and there was light rain and scattered clouds. My thoughts are with those onboard and their families… how awful.

It’s too early to know what caused this accident

The weather conditions weren’t particularly bad at the time of the accident, and it’s also interesting that there was no mayday call from the pilots, regarding any possible emergency.

The thing that immediately stands out here is that this aircraft was nearly 50 years old, so it was obviously on the old side, but that’s not to say that it should be unsafe. While probably not related, this exact aircraft was involved in a 2018 accident, where it lost a large part of its left wing. However, the plane reentered service, and didn’t have issues for years.

More than age as such, perhaps the bigger concern is Russia’s issues in recent years with aviation safety and maintenance. Russia has seemingly given up on having any sort of standards for how well aircraft have to be maintained.

In the case of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, that’s due to sanctions that are in place, which make it difficult for Russian airlines to acquire new aircraft, or even parts. In this case, Antonov aircraft are primarily from Ukraine.

Perhaps issues between Russia and Ukraine aren’t even the biggest issues here. The bigger problem is that there are under 100 of these planes flying worldwide (most are in service in Africa), so I have to imagine that there’s a shortage of spare parts. That’s not to say that was the cause of this accident,

I’m not saying that had anything to do with this accident, but it’s definitely the first thing that stands out.

Bottom line

An Angara Airlines Antonov An-24 crashed in Russia today, killing all 48 people onboard. The 49-year-old aircraft was performing a go around, but the plane then disappeared, with no further contact from pilots. A while later, wreckage was found around nine miles from the airport.

My thoughts are with those who lost their lives, and their families…