Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the crew of the Il-112V military transport aircraft that crashed in the Moscow region.

“Nikolay Kuimov, Dmitry Komarov, Nikolay Khludeev were courageous people, real heroes and professionals.

They belonged to a cohort of pioneers who tested the most complicated equipment and made a huge contribution to the development of domestic aviation, ”said Putin's telegram on the Kremlin website.

The crash of a prototype Il-112V light military transport aircraft occurred during a training flight near the village of Nikolskoye.

On board were IL PJSC chief pilot, 1st class test pilot, Hero of Russia Nikolai Kuimov, 1st class test pilot Dmitry Komarov, 1st class test flight engineer Nikolai Khludeev.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov also expressed condolences to the relatives and colleagues of the crew of the Il-112V plane that crashed in the Moscow region.

"The death of the crew is a great loss for all of us," RBC quotes a statement from the press service of the Deputy Prime Minister.

The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) said that the death of pilots in the crash of the Il-112V is an irreparable loss.

“The team of PJSC“ IL ”has lost professionals in their field, the most experienced and courageous testers of aviation technology, who were entrusted with the most important and responsible projects not only for the Aviation Complex named after S.V.

Ilyushin, but also for the entire aviation industry, for the whole country.

They left, fulfilling their duty, remaining in the service of their homeland to the end, ”the UAC said in an official statement.

The Investigative Committee has published a recording from the plane crash site.

The video shows how the remains of the car were found among the trees.

Shortly before this, a record of the moment of the crash appeared on the network, which shows that before the fall, the plane caught fire and banked to the starboard side.

Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article on violation of safety rules on the fact of the IL-112V crash.

According to investigators, the accident occurred during a plane flight from the Kubinka airfield to Zhukovsky in a forest belt near Nikolsky.

“A criminal case has been initiated on the basis of a crime under Part 3 of Art.

263 of the Criminal Code of Russia "Violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian Technologies State Corporation announced the formation of a commission to investigate the incident, the official statement said.

"Rostec is creating an internal commission with the involvement of specialists from aircraft building research institutes and factories to investigate the causes of the accident of the prototype Il-112V aircraft, which crashed today in the Moscow region," the entry says.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the crashed plane was in the register of experimental aviation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

“The crashed aircraft is in the register of experimental aviation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia.

Representatives of the ministry immediately left for the crash site.

The commission to find out the causes of the incident, which in such cases is created by the relevant department, will be headed by Deputy Minister Oleg Bocharov, ”the TASS agency quoted a statement as saying.

Also on russian.rt.com The son of the Il-112V test flight engineer told about his father

According to TASS, the preliminary cause of the crash is considered to be engine surge and the processes that followed.

"The preliminary reason is surging, destruction of the engine, the ingress of its elements into the fuel system and, as a result, fire," the agency said, citing a source in the security forces.

The agency also reported that one of the other causes of the crash could have been oil getting into the engine's combustion chamber.

According to the TASS interlocutor in emergency services, the plane stayed in the air for four minutes, after which the crew reported a fire and began to land.

As a result, the plane crashed 1.5 km from the Kubinka runway.

A few days before the accident, the UAC said that the first sample of the Il-112V flew from the airfield of the Voronezh Aviation Plant to the Il base in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.

The plane was supposed to take part in the Army-2021 forum.

The first flight of the Il-112V took place in March 2019.

On that day, the plane was also commanded by the Hero of Russia Nikolai Kuimov.