2 pilots killed as plane makes hard landing in Russia

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Two pilots were killed in a plane hard landing in Russia's arctic Nenets autonomous region on Monday, the local office of the Emergency Ministry said.

The AN-2 plane was performing a flight on the route of Naryan-Mar-Karatayka-Varandey-Naryan-Mar when the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing due to icing 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the village of Karatayka.

The ministry said one of the passengers reported in a phone talk there were two crew members and ten passengers on board.

Emergency teams rushed to the scene on snowmobiles and by helicopter.