All three people aboard a missing plane have been rescued from the crash site in Kamchatka, a remote Russian peninsula that extends into the Atlantic Ocean, local officials say.
Authorities said on Sunday that the An-2 plane had been missing for three days before it was located in Kamchatka. The three crash survivors have been transported to hospital, according to Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The two crew members and a passenger, all of whom survived, spent three days without food and kept warm in the snow by burning fuel.
“Inside (the aircraft) we kept warm, lit fuel, and ate the food that we had. We switched on the emergency beacon, prayed, and believed in a miracle,” one of them told local media.
Another of the trio said they had melted snow in a bucket to provide drinking water.
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Local media reports say one of the pilots has been diagnosed with a closed cerebral injury and is set to undergo surgery, while another is reportedly suffering from hypothermia.
The pilots reportedly heard signals that a search was underway for them but were unable to communicate due to adverse weather conditions.
The plane crash survivors were found by rescuers from the Kamchatka Regional Air Transport Service of the Russian Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia.
Belonging to a private company, the An-2 flew from the village of Milkovo to the village of Ossora in the north of the peninsula on 19 December to transport commercial cargo.
Authorities said the plane then began to descend due to the severe cold and overloading.
Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency says its Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case on a breach of air transport operation regulations over the incident.
