(New York Post) Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s doomed private plane showed no signs of distress until a sudden drop 30 seconds before the deadly crash in Russia — amid speculation that the rogue warlord’s plane may have been downed by a bomb hidden in a crate of wine.
The Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet, with Prigozhin and other senior Wagner Group members listed among the 10 passengers, showed “no indication that there was anything wrong” earlier in the flight Wednesday, according to Ian Petchenik of the flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
It then made a “sudden downward vertical” at 5:19 p.m. local time — and within about 30 seconds, plummeted more than 8,000 feet from its cruising altitude of 28,000 feet.
“Whatever happened, happened quickly,” Petchenik said. “They may have been wrestling [with the aircraft] after whatever happened.
Video showed the plane plummeting with its nose pointing almost straight downward and a plume of smoke or vapor trailing behind it.
Flightradar24 received its final data on the jet at 5:20 p.m., moments before it fell out of the sky near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region while traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
The Embraer jet model has a stellar safety record, with only one recorded accident in more than 20 years of service.
Flight-tracking data showed that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane made a sudden drop of 8,000 feet just 30 seconds before plummeting out of the sky over Russia’s Tver region.REUTERS
The Brazilian plane manufacturer said it had not been providing support services for Prigozhin’s jet since 2019 in compliance with US sanctions on the mercenary boss.
Since news of the plane crash broke Wednesday, there has been furious speculation about its cause and who may have targeted Prigozhin — less than two months after he was labeled a “traitor” by Russian President Vladimir Putin for leading a short-lived mutiny against his top military brass.
One of the theories spreading on Russian social media sites is that a bomb had been planted onboard Prigozhin’s plane, possibly concealed inside a crate of wine, reported the Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which is linked to Russian security services.
“Supposedly someone testified that at the very last moment, a certain gift consisting of a crate of expensive wine was loaded unto the plane,” wrote VChK-OGPU. “And now they are looking into claims that the crate may have contained a bomb.”
The plane had been carefully searched with sniffer dogs before the wine crate had been loaded, added the Telegram channel.
Wagner private army’s fighter Yevgeny Makaryan was killed in the crash.Social media/east2west
Valery Chekalov was killed in the crash.Social media/east2west
Wagner private army’s fighter Sergey Propustin was killed in the crash.Social media/east2west
Co-founder of the Wagner group Dmitry Utkin was killed in the crash.social media/east2west
Wagner fighter Alexander Totmin was killed in the crash.Social media/east2west
The same outlet also reported, citing another anonymous source, that the flight attendant on the jet, identified as Kristina Raspopova, told her brother in a phone conversation before the ill-fated trip Wednesday that she and the rest of the crew were awaiting an “important phone call” pending their imminent departure from Moscow.
Raspopova also allegedly said the jet had been undergoing repairs.
Investigators are said to be probing the possibility that an explosive was planted in the jet’s landing gear, reported the Russian outlet SHOT.
