Passenger plane crashes in Russia, Wagner chief Prigozhin possibly on board

A jet associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed in Russia’s Tver region on Wednesday evening. The Federal Air Transport Agency reported that the Wagner Group chief himself was on the passenger list.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said citing preliminary reports that all those on board the aircraft — seven passengers and three crew members — were killed.

The private Embraer Legacy jet was on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it crashed outside the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region. Local news outlet Drugaya Tver claims the aircraft’s tail number was 2795. IStories had earlier found out that an aircraft with that number is owned by the founder of the Wagner Group.

VChK-OGPU, a Telegram channel close to Russian security services, claims that Prigozhin’s deputy, Dmitry Utkin, was also on board the Embraer.

Grey Zone, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner Group, claims that the plane was downed by air defence. There has been no official confirmation of this report.

Military expert Yuri Fyodorov told Novaya-Europe that the trajectory of the aircraft’s fall may indicate that there was an explosion on board, adding that the videos of the crash do not show any signs of a smoke trail that an air defence missile would have left.

Pavel Aksyonov from the BBC Russian Service also believes that events on board the plane could have led to the crash, pointing out that the Embraer’s transponder stopped working while the jet was still in the air.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened an criminal investigation into the crash.