Last-Minute Choice Saves Grandmother from Doomed Russian Flight

A woman narrowly avoided death after stepping off a doomed Russian passenger plane just moments before takeoff, a twist of fate her family is calling nothing short of a miracle.

Marina Avalyan, 55, had boarded an Angara Airlines flight on Thursday, preparing to return home to Tynda after visiting relatives in Blagoveshchensk.

But a sudden call from her daughter changed everything.

Her granddaughter had fallen ill with stomach pain, and the family needed someone to care for her while the child’s father rushed another sibling to the hospital. Marina, moved by maternal instinct, requested to disembark.

Fortunately, the flight had been delayed due to rainy weather, allowing enough time for Marina to retrieve her luggage and leave the airport.

She made it back to her daughter’s house, where the child’s symptoms soon eased.

It was only after she arrived that she learned the devastating news, the plane she had nearly flown on had crashed during its approach to Tynda, killing everyone on board.

“She truly did get off the aircraft and went home,” said her brother-in-law, Samvel, in an interview with local media outlet Pravda.ru.

The family is still grappling with the shock of her narrow escape, calling it a divine stroke of luck.

The aircraft involved was a Soviet-designed Antonov An-24 turboprop, built in 1976.

It had departed from Blagoveshchensk, a city near Russia’s border with China, and was on a regional route to Tynda, a town critical to the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway.

At around 1 p.m. local time, the plane lost contact with air traffic control.

Its wreckage, charred and smoking, was later discovered on a wooded hillside roughly 15 kilometers from Tynda.

All 48 people aboard, 42 passengers and six crew, perished.

The victims included entire families, children, and longtime airline staff.

Aviation authorities confirmed that the aircraft had undergone a recent technical inspection, but the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Experts suspect a combination of poor weather and a failed initial landing attempt played a role. According to officials, the plane was making a second approach when disaster struck.

Dramatic aerial footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the crash site.

Rescue teams had to cut through dense forest with heavy machinery to reach the area, as there were no access roads.

A criminal probe has been launched for possible violations of aviation safety protocols, and forensic teams are working to recover remains and determine the cause.

Among the victims was Sergei Shiyan, a well-known fitness trainer from Khabarovsk, who died alongside his wife Natalia and their 18-month-old daughter Eva.

The family had been vacationing in Tynda, Natalia’s hometown.

Alexander and Elena Mamedov, a couple celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, were also killed.

Their family learned of the tragedy from the news.

Irina Alexandrikova, 25, and her six-year-old son Sergei Ochkin had just returned from surgery in Blagoveshchensk and were flying home.

The night before the crash, they had taken photos together by the Amur River.

Another passenger, Elena Velikanova, 55, had texted her family just before departure: “In the plane, meet me.”

She had planned to bring her granddaughter home for the summer.

Now, her family faces the heartbreaking task of explaining her death to the young girl.

Flight attendant Anastasia Bessmertnaya, a veteran of the skies since 2007, also lost her life.

Her husband, who survived a crash in 2011, is left to care for their two daughters.

The aircraft’s captain, Vyacheslav Logvinov, worked for Angara Airlines, a regional carrier based in Irkutsk and one of the few still operating the aging An-24 fleet, often nicknamed “flying tractors” for their durability in harsh conditions.

Out of the 1,340 An-24s built during the Soviet era, only 75 remain in service, primarily in countries like North Korea, Cuba, and Myanmar.

Russia had vowed to retire the fleet in favor of newer aircraft, but replacements like the TVRS-44 Ladoga are not expected until 2027.

Following the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin observed a minute of silence and offered condolences to the victims’ families.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also extended sympathies, with reports indicating at least one Chinese national was among the dead.

Authorities have launched multiple investigations into the crash, technical, criminal, and administrative, and a government commission has been appointed to oversee the response.

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