A Russian passenger plane flying from the Black Sea resort of Sochi to the Siberian city of Omsk with 167 people on board made an emergency landing in a Siberian field on Tuesday, officials said.
Authorities released footage of the Ural Airlines Airbus A320 in a field next to a forest in the Novosibirsk region, saying no one was injured in the incident.
The plane’s evacuation slides could be seen deployed and people stood around the aircraft in a field.
Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia said the landing took place “on a site selected from the air” near the village of Kamenka, located in the Novosibirsk region.
“According to the crew, there are 159 passengers and six crew members onboard,” the agency added.
“All passengers are being housed in the nearest village,” Rosaviatsia said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, has opened a criminal investigation into the violation of air traffic safety rules.
It said the aircraft made the emergency landing due to a technical problem.
Ural Airlines’ general director dismissed the possibility that the plane’s technical difficulties were linked to shortages of spare aircraft parts brought on by Western sanctions.
“For Airbus servicing, we’ve had the ability to perform all kinds of maintenance,” the airline’s general director Sergei Skuratov said at a press conference, according to the RBC news website.
Ural Airlines is a domestic Russian airline based in the city of Yekaterinburg.
