Military plane crashes in Ukraine, several dead

A military transport plane carrying aviation school students crashed and burst into flames in northeastern Ukraine on Friday, killing 26 people on board, officials said.    

Only one person survived and was taken to hospital in a serious condition, officials said.

The plane, an Antonov 26, crashed while attempting to land at the airport in Chuhuiv, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Kyiv and 2 kilometers from a military airport.

The town of Chuhuiv is around 30 kilometers southeast of Kharkiv and 100 kilometers west of the front line with the pro-Russian separatists.

The Interior Ministry said the passengers included air force pilots and cadets.

Cause of crash uncertain

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

Defence Minister Andriy Taran said "the plane likely caught the ground with its wing" and caught fire after that.

"The flight recorder is now in the plane, after analyzing the information that is recorded there, it will be possible to draw conclusions," the Defence Ministry quoted Taran as saying.

According to reports, the plane had a military crew and most of the passengers were students at a Defense Ministry-run aviation university.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would travel to the region on Saturday.

"We are urgently creating a commission to investigate all the circumstances and causes of the tragedy," he wrote on Facebook.

dvv/mm (AP, Reuters, AFP)