Moscow, July 25 -- A Russian An-24 aircraft carrying 49 people, including five children and six crew members, crashed in the mountainous Amur region, killing all on board, according to local media reports.

The ill-fated flight, operated by the Siberia-based Angara Airlines, had departed from Blagoveshchensk and was en route to Tynda, near the Russia-China border, when it lost contact with air traffic controllers shortly before its scheduled landing.

According to Russia's state news agency TASS, the aircraft reportedly caught fire mid-air and vanished from radar. Rescue helicopters later located the burning wreckage on a remote mountainside, approximately 16 km from Tynda.

Officials from the Amur Centre for Civil Defence and Fire Safety...