An inspection of Angara Airlines, which operated the Antonov An-24 aircraft which crashed in Russia's far east on July 24, killing all 48 on board, had uncovered serious safety violations a month beforehand, Russian news outlet Izvestia reported.
The Angara Airlines flight disappeared from radar during its approach to the town of Tynda, about 360 miles from its departure point in Blagoveshchensk.
News agency Interfax reported that the wreckage was located approximately nine miles from Tynda in a densely forested area. The plane was nearly 50 years old, according to aircraft registration data cited by multiple Russian media outlets.
Izvestia stated that safety complaints related to the maintenance of Angara Airlines’ aircraft related to maintenance that was performed by specialists who were officially off-duty at the time it was recorded.
Following an inspection, eight aircraft were grounded, and four airline employees were suspended from maintenance duties.
The report also stated how maintenance was carried out without compliance with technology and airworthiness directives, by staff members who did not have the appropriate qualification training.
Vasily Orlov, the governor of the Amur region where the plane crashed, said that investigators are now working on the crash site and that there were two main theories about what had caused it: technical failure and pilot error.