Plane with 28 on Board Missing in Russian Far East Region

MOSCOW - A plane with 28 people on board went missing in the Russian Far East region of Kamchatka on Tuesday, local officials said.

An Antonov An-26 plane with 22 passengers and six crew members, flying from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the town of Palana, missed a scheduled communication, local emergency officials said. The plane also disappeared from radar, the local transport ministry. The plane belonged to a company called Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise. The plane has been in operation since 1982, Russian state news agency Tass reported. The company's director, Alexei Khabarov, told the Interfax news agency that the plane was technically sound. An investigation has been launched, and a search mission is underway. Media reports have suggested the plane may have crashed into the sea, but there has been no official confirmation of that yet. Two helicopters and an airplane have been deployed to inspect the missing plane's route, local officials said.