Russia’s Defense Ministry has refuted media allegations that one of the pilots of the L-39 military training jet was found alive, TASS reports.
"Unfortunately, the emerging reports that one of the pilots of the L-39 plane that crashed off Dolgaya Spit on October 18 are unsubstantiated," the ministry said.
The defense ministry added that a search and rescue operation suspended for the night will be resumed in the morning.
Earlier reports said the L-39 military training plane crashed at about 5pm Moscow time on Thursday during a training flight. Technical malfunction is seen as a possible cause of the crash. The plane carried no weapons. Both pilots had ejected from the plane before it crashed into the water near the Dolgaya Spit, about 1.5 kilometers off the coast. However, their whereabouts are still unknown.
The training plane L-39 Albatros was developed in Czechoslovakia. It performed the first flight in 1968. In 1972, it was selected as the main training plane for the military pilots of the Warsaw Treaty Organization’s member-states. Russian pilot schools still use it as the main plane to train cadets.