Tag: plane crash

US: Republican MP Doug Larsen, his wife and 2 kids killed as plane crashed shortly after takeoff

The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 24 kilometres north of the desert recreation town of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook.

Doug Larsen, his wife and two children

A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were travelling in crashed soon after a refuelling stop in Utah, a Senate leader said on Monday. Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed on Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by The Associated Press.

The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 24 kilometres north of the desert recreation town of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said the senator was the pilot and all four people on board the plane were killed.

“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Hogue wrote in his email. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”

“I’m not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy,” Hogue wrote. “Hold your family close today.”

A bouquet of roses was draped over Larsen’s desk in the Senate chamber, just above the nameplate that reads: “D. Larsen – District 34.”

Probe underway

The crash of the single-engine Piper plane was being investigated, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, the social media website formerly called Twitter.

An NTSB spokesman said a board investigator was expected to arrive at the scene Monday “to begin to document the scene, examine the aircraft, request any air traffic communications, radar data, weather reports and try to contact any witnesses. Also, the investigator will request maintenance records of the aircraft, and medical records and flight history of the pilot.”

Officials didn’t release the plane’s origin or final destination. After landing at the airport, the travelers took a car into Moab before taking off in the refueled plane, NTSB spokesman Fabian Salazar said at a news conference at the airport.

The agency will have a preliminary report on the crash within a couple weeks, followed by a final report in a year to year and a half, Salazar said.

Who was  Doug Larsen?

Larsen was a Republican first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2020. His district comprises Mandan, the city neighbouring Bismarck to the west across the Missouri River. Larsen chaired a Senate panel that handled industry and business legislation. He and his wife, Amy, were business owners.

Larsen served 29 years in the North Dakota Army National Guard. He mobilized twice, to Iraq from 2009-10 and to Washington, D.C., from 2013-14, according to Gov. Doug Burgum’s office. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Service Star and Army Aviator Badge among other honours.

Burgum in a statement said Larsen “was a father, husband, coach, entrepreneur, businessman, state senator and lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard who committed himself fully to each of those roles with an unwavering sense of honor and duty. As a legislator, he was a tenacious advocate for individual rights and the freedoms he defended through his military service.”

Source: https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/us-plane-crash-video-republican-mp-doug-larsen-his-wife-and-2-kids-killed-as-plane-crashed-shortly-after-takeoff-in-canyonlands-airfield-utah-2023-10-03-895913

Indian billionaire Harpal Randhawa and son killed in plane crash in Zimbabwe

Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim, along with his son and four others was killed when the plane crashed. Photo: X

An Indian billionaire and his son were among the six individuals killed when their private plane crashed near a diamond mine in southwestern Zimbabwe after experiencing a technical fault, according to media reports.

Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim, a diversified mining company producing gold and coal as well as refining nickel and copper, along with his son and four others was killed when the plane crashed in the Zvamahande area of Mashava, a news and media website in Zimbabwe, reported.

The Cessna 206 aircraft, owned by RioZim, was en route from Harare to the Murowa diamond mine when the tragic incident occurred on Friday. The single-engined aircraft crashed near the Murowa Diamonds mine, which is partly owned by RioZim.

The plane experienced a technical fault, possibly resulting in a mid-air explosion, before plummeting into Peter Farm in the Zvamahande region. All passengers and crew onboard lost their lives in this accident, the report said.

The Herald, a state-owned daily newspaper, quoted police as saying four of the victims were foreigners and the other two Zimbabweans.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police reports a plane crash which occurred on September 29 between 7.30 am and 8 am, where six people are confirmed dead, police said.

RioZim confirmed the crash and said it was working with relevant authorities to gather more information. Names of the deceased are yet to be released by police but journalist and filmmaker Hopewell Chinono, who was a friend of Randhawa, confirmed his death.

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim who died today in a plane crash in Zvishavane. Five other people including his son, who was also a pilot but a passenger on this flight, also died in the crash, wrote Chinono on X.

Super Bowl champ Russ Francis, fellow aviation enthusiast killed in plane crash, police say

Francis, Richard McSpadden died moments after takeoff in New York

Russ Francis, a three-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers, was one of two people killed in a plane crash over the weekend in New York, authorities said.

Francis, 70, was with another aviation enthusiast, Richard McSpadden, 63, going for a ride out of Lake Placid Airport around 4 p.m. ET on Sunday. The two were in a single-engine Cessna 177 when the plane encountered trouble and crashed into an embankment at the corner of the airport, New York State Police said.

The former New England Patriots tight end was the organization’s first-round pick in 1975 and played for the team until 1980. He was a Pro Bowler for three straight seasons between 1977-1979.

“Russ was a fan favorite throughout his playing career,” Patriots team owner Robert Kraft said in a statement. “He was a dynamic player on the field who had an even bigger personality off it. He knew no boundaries, pushed the limits and lived his life to the fullest.”

He returned to the football field in 1982 after retiring in 1981. He played for the San Francisco 49ers before rejoining the Patriots in the middle of the 1987 season. He finished his career with the Patriots in 1988.

New England Patriots’ Russ Francis is shown during a press conference on Feb. 11, 1980, at Boston Garden. (AP Photo/File)

Francis won a Super Bowl in 1984. He had a touchdown catch against the New York Giants in the wild-card round of the playoffs. San Francisco later defeated the Miami Dolphins, 38-6. He had five catches for 60 yards in that game.

Francis was the president of Lake Placid Airways, which runs charter and scenic flights in upstate New York. He had been a pilot for nearly 50 years and had run a charter service in Hawaii, according to the airline’s website.

McSpadden was a senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and was a known aviation safety expert. The organization said his career included a stint as commander of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/super-bowl-champ-russ-francis-fellow-aviation-enthusiast-killed-plane-crash-police-say

Russia says genetic tests confirm Prigozhin died in plane crash

Russian investigators said on Sunday that genetic tests had confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenary group, was among the 10 people killed in a plane crash last week.

Russia’s aviation agency had previously published the names of all 10 on board the private jet which crashed in the Tver region northwest of Moscow on Wednesday. They included Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, his right-hand man who helped found the Wagner group.

“As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular-genetic examinations have been completed,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

“According to their results, the identities of all 10 dead were established. They correspond to the list stated in the flight sheet,” it said.

There had been some speculation, especially on pro-Wagner Telegram channels, about whether Prigozhin – who was known to take various security precautions in anticipation of a possible attempt on his life – had really been on the doomed flight.

Authorities have yet to say what they believe caused his private jet to fall from the sky.

‘STAB IN THE BACK’
The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny against Russian military commanders in which they took control of a southern city, Rostov, and advanced towards Moscow before turning back 200 km (125 miles) from the capital.

Muscovites laid flowers on Sunday at a makeshift shrine festooned with Russian flags and photographs set up a short distance from the Kremlin to the memory of Prigozhin and Utkin.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of Russian private mercenary group Wagner, gives an address in camouflage and with a weapon in his hands in a desert area at an unknown location, in this still image taken from video possibly shot in Africa and published August 21, 2023. Courtesy PMC Wagner via Telegram via REUTERS/File photo Acquire Licensing Rights

“I have got used to comrades in arms dying,” said Dmitry Karpov, who wore military fatigues, adding that Prigozhin had shown by his actions how things should be done in wartime. “Such people remain in history as an example.”

Another man who came to pay his respects, Alexander Dykhov, alluded to criticism by President Vladimir Putin of Prigozhin’s past mistakes. “The talk about some mistakes, different opinions, I think all this will be forgotten. And in people’s memory there will be the image of a hero. He and Dmitry Utkin are real heroes.”

Putin described the June 23-24 mutiny as a treacherous “stab in the back”, but later met with Prigozhin in the Kremlin. He sent his condolences on Thursday to the families of those killed in the crash.

Western politicians and commentators have suggested, without presenting evidence, that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed as punishment for the mutiny, which also represented the biggest challenge to Putin’s own rule since he came to power in 1999.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that such suggestions were “an absolute lie”. Asked whether Putin might attend Prigozhin’s funeral, Peskov said it was too early to say and also noted the president’s “busy schedule”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-investigators-confirm-wagner-mercenary-chief-prigozhin-died-plane-crash-2023-08-27

Kremlin denies role in plane crash believed to have killed Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin

The Kremlin on Friday rejected allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.

Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria, was eulogized Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind the crash that many saw as an assassination.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed by an intentional explosion. One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details on what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to be vengeance for the mutiny in June that posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s 23-year rule.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov flatly rejected the allegations.

“Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov told reporters during a conference call. “Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie.”

Prigozhin was listed among those aboard the plane.

Asked by The Associated Press whether the Kremlin has received an official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov referenced Putin’s remarks from a day earlier: “He said that right now all the necessary forensic analyses, including genetic testing, will be carried out. Once some kind of official conclusions are ready to be released, they will be released.”

Britain’s Defense Ministry said the presumed death of Prigozhin could destabilize his Wagner Group of private military contractors.

His “exceptional audacity” and “extreme brutality” permeated the organization “and are unlikely to be matched by any successor,” the ministry said in a statement.

Wagner mercenaries were key elements of Russia’s forces in its war in Ukraine, particularly in the long fight to take the city of Bakhmut, the conflict’s most grueling battle. Wagner fighters also have played a central role projecting Russian influence in global trouble spots, first in Africa and then in Syria.

The jet crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg, carrying Prigozhin, six other Wagner members and a crew of three, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Prigozhin was dead. But there has been no official confirmation.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-wagner-prigozhin-jet-crash-1237eb57870538e52938839bcaa6675f

‘Absolute lie’: Russia denies role in Yevgeny Prigozhin plane crash

Allegations that Moscow was behind aircraft explosion presumed to have killed Wagner Group boss are untrue, Kremlin spokesman says.

Western suggestions that the Wagner Group mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed on the Russian government’s orders are an “absolute lie”, the Kremlin says.

It declined on Friday to definitively confirm Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash, citing the need to wait for test results.

Russian investigators have recovered 10 bodies and flight recorders from the scene of Wednesday’s crash northwest of Moscow, and investigations are under way.

Prigozhin, who conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago, hired fighters who are feared in Africa and Syria and played a crucial role in the war in Ukraine.

Some unidentified officials from the West quoted in the media have suggested the plane explosion appears to be vengeance for the Wagner mutiny in June, which posed the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s 23-year rule.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov flatly rejected the allegations.

“Right now, of course, there are lots of speculation around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov told reporters in a conference call. “Of course in the West, those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie.”

Prigozhin was listed among those on board the plane.

When asked whether the Kremlin has received an official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov referenced Putin’s remarks from a day earlier. “He said that right now all the necessary forensic analyses, including genetic testing, will be carried out. Once some kind of official conclusions are ready to be released, they will be released.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin who mediated the deal that ended the mutiny, said he “can’t imagine” the Russian leader ordered Prigozhin’s assassination.

“I know Putin. He is calculating, very calm, even slow,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying by state media. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It’s too rough and unprofessional work.”

‘I’m not surprised’
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said the presumed death of Prigozhin could destabilise his Wagner Group of private military contractors.

His “exceptional audacity” and “extreme brutality” permeated the organisation “and are unlikely to be matched by any successor”, it said in a statement.

The private jet crashed soon after taking off from Moscow for St Petersburg, carrying Prigozhin, six other Wagner members and a crew of three, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency.

US President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said he believed Putin was likely behind the crash. “I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised. There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov took offence at that remark. “It is not for the US president, in my opinion, to talk about certain tragic events of this nature,” he said on Friday.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/25/absolute-lie-kremlin-denies-role-in-yevgeny-prigozhin-plane-crash

Russian officials claim warlord Prigozhin WAS on fireball plane

Russian officials claim Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin WAS on plane which crashed near Moscow amid growing mystery over his fate – while ‘passenger list’ for doomed jet is published and claims mercenary group’s ‘neo-Nazi’ No2 was also on-board

Russian officials have claimed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on an ill-fated plane which crashed in a field north of Moscow, killing all ten onboard, two months after his failed coup attempt against Putin’s regime.

The Federal Air Transport Agency published a list of all those it believed were onboard the private jet, including Prigozhin, his deputy Dmitry Utkin and five others, believed to be close allies.

Prigozhin, known as Putin’s chef and with longstanding links to the Kremlin dictator, has long been thought to be a prime target for Russian authorities after his uprising failed and he was exiled to Belarus.

Ten bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage, local emergency services have said, but MailOnline is unable to independently verify whether Prigozhin was one of them.

Reports of a second plane, also linked to Prigozhin, in the area at the time of the crash that later flew to Moscow has fuelled suggestions the warlord cheated death by travelling in a different plane or even that it may be his ruse to escape into exile.

Both state media and Telegram accounts affiliated to Wagner have reported Prigozhin’s and Utkin’s deaths.

While the fate of his bitter rival remained unknown, the Russian President enjoyed a WW2 memorial concert and handed out military honours in Kursk, Russia.

Washington confirmed on Wednesday evening that President Biden has been briefed, and the UK government confirmed it was ‘monitoring the situation closely’.

The plane crash comes amid news that:

• President Putin looked perplexed as he checked his watch anxiously hours before the crash – only to find it on his other arm
• Ukraine successfully destroy Russian tanks using drones and artillery
• Brit Simon Lingard, 38, died while fighting for Ukrainian army, inquest hears
• A smug Putin attends a WW2 memorial concert in Kursk

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12437935/Private-plane-believed-transporting-Wagner-chief-Yevgeny-Prigozhin-crashes-Russia.html

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