Crimea: A senior commander in the Russian Air Force was among 31 people who perished when a military transport aircraft crashed last week in the Russian-controlled Crimean Peninsula, authorities confirmed.

According to Oman News Agency, Andrey Chibis, governor of the northern Murmansk region where the affected fleet is based, identified the officer as Alexander Otroshchenko, commander of the Air Force and Air Defense of the 45th Army of the Northern Fleet.

The Antonov An-26 transport plane struck a rocky cliff in Crimea on 31 March 2026. Russia's Ministry of Defense shortly afterward cited a technical malfunction as the preliminary cause of the incident.

The aircraft, which first entered service in the late 1960s and has also been operated by cargo carriers, has been linked to multiple fatal incidents over the past decade.