Residents of a village near the crash site of a plane suspected to have murdered Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said they had heard a bang and then saw the plane crash.
The plane, an Embraer Legacy 600 private jet, crashed near the town of Kuzhenkino in Russia’s Tver region on Wednesday while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg, killing all ten people on board – seven passengers and three crew members.
There has been no official comment from the Kremlin or the Defence Ministry on the fate of Prigozhin’s fate, but a Telegram channel affiliated with his Wagner mercenary group, Grey Zone, pronounced him dead.
A blue-and-white liveried tail and other pieces of the plane lay on the ground near a wooded area.
Forensic experts had set up a tent and lighting gear. Parts of the wreckage were discovered near what seemed to be a half-completed abandoned construction.
“I hear an explosion or a bang”, said Vitaly Stepenok, 72, of Kuzhenkino.
“Usually, if an explosion happens on the ground then you get an echo, but it was just a bang and I looked up and saw white smoke”, Vitaly Stepenok continued.
“One wing flew off in one direction and the fuselage went like that”, he explained, motioning with his arms to illustrate how the plane descended to the ground.
He went on to say, “Then it swooped down on one wing. It didn’t nose-dive, it was gliding”.
Stepenok, who was standing in a rural street, expressed concern that the plane would crash into nearby buildings.
Furthermore, he stated, “I was over there. I jumped on my bike and was there (at the site) in about 20 minutes. Everything was on fire. People were walking around. They dragged someone out, their remains… I couldn’t make it out. I just saw the number on the plane, which I told them, and that was it”.
Another villager, Anatoly stated, “In terms of what might have happened, I’ll just say this: it wasn’t thunder, it was a metallic bang – let’s put it that way. I’ve heard things like that before”.
“Over there by that mast. And it fell over there”, he replied, indicating a property.
The crash happened exactly two months after Prigozhin led an unsuccessful mutiny against the army’s top brass, accusing them of incompetence in handling Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
Russian investigators announced the launch of a criminal investigation.
According to anonymous Russian media sources, the plane was shot down by one or more surface-to-air missiles.
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