MOSCOW—Search teams found debris of a Russian passenger plane carrying 28 people that disappeared earlier Tuesday above Russia’s sparsely populated far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, leaving little hope of finding survivors, authorities said.
Radio contact with the Antonov An-26 plane was lost shortly before it was due to make a landing in the village of Palana, near the western shore of the peninsula, which had been under a heavy fog. There were 22 passengers, including two children, and six crew on the flight from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, according to authorities.
Wreckage believed to be from the plane indicated some collision, and parts of the aircraft were scattered between the rocky hills that surround the village and shoreline about 4 kilometers, or 2.5 miles, from the runway at Palana, said Vladimir Solodov, governor of Kamchatka province. At the time of planned landing, weather conditions were poor around the airport, according to the agency.
“Presumably, the tragedy happened as [the plane] was on a go-around,” said Mr. Solodov, referring to a maneuver in which a pilot decides to abort a landing and circle around again.
“Due to the poor weather conditions it possibly hit a high hill,” he said. “The fuselage is still on that hill and the main part of the airplane is in the water.”
