By Thomas Koerbel
dpa, Berlin
MOSCOW — The likely crash site of a Russian firefighting plane that went missing while battling a blaze in Siberia has been found, state news agency Tass reported Saturday.
The Il-76 plane, with a crew of 10, went missing on Friday in the Siberian region of Irkutsk.
Emergency specialists had identified the crash site, which was about 150 kilometres from the nearest inhabited area, Tass reported citing the Emergency Situations Ministry.
About 500 rescue workers were deployed to search for the crew, but there was no immediate information on their fate.
The Il-76 is one of the largest firefighting aircraft in the world. With a capacity of 42 tons, it is also called the “water bomber.”
Firefighters have been battling the blaze throughout the region for days. In recent years, relatively hotter summers in Siberia and the Russian Far East have been severely drying out the land and creating prime conditions for wildfires.
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(c)2016 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)