The mysterious story, which has excited all the inhabitants of Russia for almost a year, is finally close to completion. Despite the efforts of volunteers, rescuers and policemen, the "secret" of the An-2 stolen from Serov turned out to be tragic: the corn-plant crashed almost immediately after take-off, and all the people on board were killed
In the Sverdlovsk region, the wreckage of the An-2 aircraft that disappeared last summer was found. The aircraft was found by local hunters and gamekeepers, who first reported this to Izvestia's correspondents, having decided not to contact rescuers because of the multitude of "unconfirmed reports" about the incident that had appeared since the disappearance of the An-2. The plane is in a swamp at a distance of 8 km from the airport from where it took off.
“The plane lies - or rather, sticks out - right in the middle of the swamp. He entered the swamp at an acute angle, propeller forward. The propeller, the engine, and the entire front end to the instrument panel went into a viscous slurry. Only the exhaust pipe sticks out of it. There is no metal cladding not only on the wing. Almost all of it scattered or melted, the smell of burning is felt here so clearly, as if the fire was burning only yesterday."
It was not possible to immediately identify the An-2, since neither the RA-40312 tail number, nor the name of the airline on its hull survived. Rescuers went to the site of the alleged crash, said the press service of the main department of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia in the Sverdlovsk region. Mikhail Borodin, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Sverdlovsk Region, went there.
According to the latest data, at the site of the alleged crash of the An-2, EMERCOM officers found the skeletal remains of all 13 people on board.
It also became known that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has resumed the investigation of the criminal case related to the loss of the aircraft. Earlier, it was initiated under Part 3 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport, resulting in the death of more than two persons by negligence”). This was reported on the agency's website.
An-2, which was used to monitor forest fires, unauthorizedly took off from Serov airfield on the evening of June 11, 2012. On board were pilot Khatip Kashapov and 12 passengers, including the airfield watchman Yuri Sobolev, the head of the Serov traffic police Dmitry Ushakov and three of his subordinates.
According to witnesses, the whole company drank alcohol before departure. Presumably, they then went on a plane to go fishing or to the bathhouse. After the An-2 took off from Serov, no one saw him again.