Russian ‘miracle’ as passengers survive hard plane landing in Siberia

All 18 people on board a Russian Antonov An-28 passenger plane that vanished from radars were found alive on Friday after the aircraft was forced to make a hard landing in Siberia, the emergencies ministry said.

Fears had swirled over the fate of the plane after it went missing as it flew from the town of Kedrovy to the city of Tomsk. Rescuers were dispatched to search for the plane and located the survivors in a wooded area near the damaged aircraft.

“We all believed in a miracle and thanks to the professionalism of the pilots it happened, everyone is alive,” regional governor Sergei Zvachkin said in a statement.