Investigators into the crash of the plane that Wagner's boss, Evgeny Prigozhin, opened a criminal investigation, but there was no official word on what might have caused the crash on Wednesday afternoon, not even an official confirmation of the Prigozhin's death beyond a statement from the aviation authority that he was on board.
According to preliminary information, it was in the landing gear area that an explosion occurred during the flight, due to which the wing detached. This wing collided with the stabilizer, after which the private jet began to climb sharply and then plummeted. Due to the explosion and depressurization, everyone on board instantly lost consciousness, preventing the pilots from reporting the emergency. A piece of the tail was found three and a half kilometers from the crash site.
None of the bodies have yet been identified. The bodies were charred and many parts were torn off by the brutal crash. Biological material from the dead was sent to Moscow for genetic testing.
Prigozhin's phone was found next to one of the bodies, Al Jazeera reported, citing a Wagner source. No investigative source has said anything in this regard.
In addition to Prigozhin, the passengers of the crashed plane were the commander and founder of Wagner, Dimitry Utkin; mercenaries Sergei Propustin, Evgeny Makaryan and Alexander Totmin; and also Valery Chekalov, who headed several companies associated with Prigozhin. The list also includes Nikolai Matuseev. According to the Dossier Center, it is most likely Nikolai Matusevich, who has worked at Wagner since 2017. Three crew members were also on board.
The Embraer plane that crashed in the Tver region gained and lost altitude several times in a short period of time before it began to fall, as stated in the Flightradar service report. In the video of the plane crash it is seen that it approaches the ground not in a dive but flat on the horizon, without part of the wing and tail.
Some anonymous sources told Russian media that they believed the plane had been brought down by one or more surface-to-air missiles. A criminal investigation has been opened.
It doesn't look like an accident. Residents of a village near the site of the plane crash that is believed to have killed Prigozhin said they heard an explosion and then saw the plane hit the ground.
Vitaly Stepenok, 72, a Kuzhenkino resident, told Reuters: "I heard an explosion or a bang. Normally, if an explosion happens on the ground, there is an echo, but it was just a bang and I looked up and saw white smoke. ". Other witnesses corroborate that "it was not thunder, it was a metallic explosion."
Another direct witness to the accident assured that "there were two loud bangs. Even my dog barked. One piece flew further, there, to the village of Kuzhenkino. It fell in that area. And the second piece flew out, it was fan-shaped, I was afraid to fall on our house."
The Investigative Committee told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that there is no basis for the case of the terrorist attack. An RBC police source said the investigation is considering all versions of what happened, "including pilot errors, technical problems and outside influences."
The plane crash case was entrusted to investigator from the Investigative Committee's main department Ivan Sibul, who has handled high-profile plane crash cases in the past, including the 2014 Vnukovo plane crash that killed the owner of Total.
Investigation continues at the 'crime' scene. At dawn, part of the plane's blue and white tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area.
The bodies of those who died in the Embraer Legacy 600 plane crash began to be removed for a forensic examination. Men were seen in the area carrying black body bags on stretchers. They were transferred to the Tver morgue, where the office of forensic examinations is located. They are already located in another center near Moscow.
