Investigators into the crash of the plane in which Wagner’s boss Evgeny Prigozhin crashed opened a investigation criminalbut there was no official word on what might have caused the crash on Wednesday afternoon, not even an official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death beyond a statement from the aviation authority that he was on board.
According to preliminary information, It was in the area of the landing gear that an explosion occurred during the flight, so the wing came off. 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 bodiesreported Al Jazeera, 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, most likely this is Nikolai Matusevich, who has worked at Wagner since 2017. Three crew members were also on board.