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Pilot killed in Russian training plane crash: official

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-18 20:55

MOSCOW -- A training plane crashed in the south of the country Tuesday night, killing the pilot, the Russian Air Force said Wednesday.

The light L-39 Albatross combat training plane crashed at 20:55 Moscow time (1755 GMT) Tuesday while performing a training flight. The wreckage has been found.

"The aircraft crashed 30 km northeast of the Kushchevskoye airfield. There were no victims nor any damage on the ground," Air Force Commander Vladimir Drik was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax.

The Czech-made L-39 is designed for initial and advanced training of cadets at military flight schools. It was a standard jet trainer for the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries.

Drik said the Air Force's flight safety service has set up a commission to investigate the crash.

Two L-39s crashed in February last year in the Krasnodar and Volgograd regions, the RIA Novosti news agency said.