Article Posted on : - Nov 09, 2009

A file photo.

MOSCOW (PTI): An anti-submarine aircraft, which crashed in Russia's Far East Tatar Strait, did not carry nuclear weapons on board, a Defence Ministry official said on Monday even as the Pacific Fleet has intensified efforts to search for the missing 11-member crew.

“The Tu-142M3 aircraft which crashed on Friday, was not carrying neither nuclear, nor conventional weapons,” Defence Ministry spokesman Col Alexei Kuznetsov was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.

The Tu-142M3 (Nato codename Bear Mod4) aircraft of the Russian Pacific Fleet used for hunting enemy submarines thousands of kilometres away from the home coast was on a training sortie with 11-member crew and crashed while approaching its base at Mogokhto in Khabarovsk Territory.

According to reports, some body fragments have been found by the search parties, even as the Pacific Fleet’s main rescue ship “Alagez” is heading for the crash site with two mini diving submarines.