You're reading: Ministry: Three die as light airplane crashes in Russia

MOSCOW - Three people were killed as a light airplane crashed in the Kaluga region in what was Friday's third serious aircraft accident in Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The aircraft, which fell near the village of Malaya Kudinovka, had belonged to a private airline, a spokesman for the ministry’s branch for the Kaluga region told Interfax.

The plane had a four-member crew, according to the spokesman.

The crash caused no casualties or destruction on the ground, the spokesman said.

Earlier on Friday, a helicopter coming from St. Petersburg made an emergency landing on the ice in Lake Janisjarvi in the Karelia republic. There were two passengers and a two-member crew on board. Three of them were said to be in a critical condition and one in a condition of medium severity after the landing.

Earlier still, a Bell 407 helicopter of the Ak Bars Aero airline disappeared during a flight from Bugulma to Kazan in the Tatarstan republic. Later fragments of the craft were found near a village in Tatarstan’s Nizhnekamsk district. There were no passengers on board. The pilot was killed.

Initial investigations suggested both helicopter crashes had been caused by poor weather.