Moscow [Russia], August 25: Late last night, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to the family of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary company, who died in the air disaster on the evening of August 23.
Speaking on Russian television, President Putin confirmed Prigozhin was among the victims of the plane crash. The leader said that Prigozhin was a person who made a serious "mistake", but also had achievements and merits. According to Putin, more time is needed before the investigation team has official results on the crash of the plane carrying Prigozhin and other members of Wagner. All 10 people on board were killed, including 7 passengers and 3 crew members.
Rosaviatsiya, Russia's Federal Air Transport Service, confirmed that Prigozhin was on the plane along with several senior Wagner commanders, according to RT.
The last 32 seconds of chaos
Sputnik News reported that the Embraer Legacy 600 departed from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. Some Russian online newspapers reported that the tail number of the plane was RA-02795, which belonged to Mr. Prigozhin. TASS cited information from the FlightRadar24 website that the plane fell into a state of loss of control in the final seconds before crashing.
Specifically, the aircraft maintained a stable journey at an altitude of about 8,500 m until 22:19 am on August 23 (Vietnam time), when the plane suddenly lowered its altitude. Next, the plane soared to an altitude of 9,150 m before plunging down the threshold of 8,400 m. Flightradar24 received its last signal when the plane was at an altitude of about 6,000 meters. All of the above changes happened in just 32 seconds. People in the village of Kuzhenkino near the crash site in Tver province said they heard a loud explosion before witnessing the plane crash into the ground.
The Russian side has opened an investigation into the plane crash. The Embraer 135BJ Legacy 600 series aircraft are highly rated in terms of safety and only have the right accident
1 time over 20 years and no engine failure. Reuters quoted the manufacturer Embraer (Brazil) as saying that from 2019 it stopped providing service to Mr. Prigozhin's jet for the reason of complying with the US embargo.
According to Flightradar24, a second plane belonging to boss Wagner with tail number RA-02878 took off from Moscow airport after the first took off. However, this plane returned to the starting point after learning the bad news. The names of the passengers on the second plane are unknown.
List of passengers who died
Although Mr. Prigozhin's name appeared on the list of passengers who died, Rosaviatsiya did not publish information about his death. There has been no official word from the Kremlin or the Russian Defense Ministry about Prigozhin's fate. However, the Gray Zone channel on Telegram, affiliated with the Wagner Company, announced that the Russian mercenary boss was dead.
The list also includes Dmitry Utkin, Wagner's military commander, and Valery Chekalov, who the US considers Wagner's "boss". The remaining passenger names also all belong to Wagner members. The Wagner side has set up a memorial for the victims, including pictures of Mr. Prigozhin and Mr. Utkin outside the headquarters in Novosibirsk.
According to RT, Mr. Prigozhin founded Wagner Company, which provides mercenary services since 2014, but did not acknowledge his connection to the company until last year. Wagner fighters are active in many African countries and Syria, where Russian mercenaries were reported to encounter US forces in 2018.
After months of fighting in the city of Bakhmut (Ukraine), boss Prigozhin at the end of May declared complete control of the city. However, he also frequently criticized the Russian Defense Ministry and accused the Russian military leadership of refusing to provide Wagner with adequate ammunition. After a brief rebellion on June 23 and ending on June 24, Mr. Prigozhin made only a few public appearances. His most recent video clip was published on August 21, with information about Wagner 's new activity in Africa.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
