Russian plane crash kills 18

A Russian Ilyushin-76, similar to the one that crashed

MOSCOW, Russia -- Up to 18 people are feared dead after a Russian military cargo plane caught fire and crashed while attempting an emergency landing.

Officials said there were 18 people on board the Ilyushin-76 transporter operated by the Russian border guards, Dmitry Starshenkov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry in the Khabarovsk region of eastern Russia, told the Associated Press.

The Il-76 came down late on Saturday near the city of Okhotsk shortly after the captain told air traffic control he was making an emergency landing due to an on board fire.

Russia's Emergency Ministry told CNN the plane, en route from Bratsk to Andir, was flying at 29,530 feet (9,000 metres) when the fire broke out.

The plane dropped to 24,610 feet (7,500 metres) and lost communication.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

"According to our information from the Okhota region, the plane exploded in mid-air. People heard the sound of two explosions and saw flashes," Valery Sukhuborov, deputy chief of the Emergencies Ministry's far eastern region, told TV6 television.

On board were nine crew, four cargo handlers and five men serving in Russia's border guards service, which had chartered the Chukhot Air Cargo transporter.

"Of course there was no chance of (those on board) surviving, as people heard two explosions in mid-air," the Emergencies Ministry duty officer in Khabarovsk told Reuters.

Some of the wreckage was still on fire when rescue services arrived at the scene.

The aircraft had broken up into three large parts, its cargo of food and 36 tons of spare parts scattered over a wide area, other officials said.

The crash was the latest in a spate of accidents involving Russian aircraft.

Earlier on Saturday, 18 servicemen were injured when their Mi-26 helicopter plunged more than 1,000 metres (3,000 feet) back to earth following an engine failure.

Last month, an Ilyushin-18 aircraft crashed in the Tver region northeast of Moscow, killing 27 people.

That incident came barely two weeks after a military helicopter ploughed into a radio mast, killing five servicemen.

In July a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet ploughed into a Siberian forest, illing all 145 passengers and crew, a disaster that prompted President Vladimir Putin to order the government to step up air safety.