All 19 passengers survive after plane makes emergency landing in Siberia

All 19 people on a Russian Antonov An-28 passenger plane that disappeared from locators in Siberia made it out alive after the aircraft made an emergency landing on Friday, stated the emergencies ministry.

The aircraft functioned by SiLA, a small airline offering regional flights in Siberia went missing while flying from the town of Kedrovy to the city of Tomsk.

However, the aircraft was positioned after helicopters were sent to search for it.

The ministry said all 19 people on board had survived and were now being taken to hospitals.

The occurrence comes less than two weeks after a similar aircraft, an Antonov An-26, crashed into a cliff in poor discernibility circumstances on the distant Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s the Far East, killing all 28 people on board.

Whereas, an Antonov-28, the same type of plane that disappeared over Tomsk, collided in a Kamchatka forest in 2012, killing 10 people.

Investigators said both pilots were drunk at the time of the crash.

Russian aviation safety standards have improved in recent years but accidents, especially concerning aging planes in far-flung regions, are not uncommon.