Five Killed in An-12 Emergency Landing near Lviv, Ukraine

By Staff, Agencies

The death toll in the emergency landing of an An-12 aircraft near the Lviv airport in Ukraine has surged to five people, Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii said in a Facebook announcement on Friday.

An-12 transport aircraft made an emergency landing near the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday, when the plane ran out of fuel, the country's Minister of Infrastructure announced. Ukrainian police opened a criminal case into the incident.

Kryklii said earlier that according to preliminary data, four people died when the An-12 plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to the aircraft running out of fuel.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Iurii Lavreniuk wrote on his Facebook page that the plane was in the midst of cargo charter flight UKL4050 en route to Lviv from Vico, Spain.

According to preliminary data, seven crew members were on board. The plane vanished from radar screens at 6:48 in the morning, and radio communication with the crew was lost.

Earlier on Friday, the State Emergency Service reported that the An-12 plane had made an emergency landing near the Lviv airport and that the crew was being evacuated.