Yevgeny Prigozhin: 8,000 feet down in 30 seconds and crashes; What happened to the plane Prigozhin was on?

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group challenging Vladimir Putin amid the Russia-Ukraine war, is reported to have been killed in a plane crash. According to reports, on Wednesday, the plane going from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region, with 10 people, including Prigozhin, on board. All these deaths are being claimed. However, it is not yet clear what happened in the plane that it crashed after traveling almost halfway.

The private jet that Prigozhin was traveling in was reportedly an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet. According to flight-tracking data website Flightradar24, his plane showed no problems during its 30-minute flight and was operating normally.

However, at around 3.19 pm, the aircraft suddenly started falling down. Within just 30 seconds, the aircraft flying at an altitude of 28 thousand feet fell down 8 thousand feet. According to Flightradar24's Ian Pechenik, whatever happened in those 30 seconds happened very quickly. He said whatever happened during this, they were probably wrestling (from the plane). However, there does not appear to have been any disturbance with the aircraft prior to its crash.

Embraer SA, the Brazilian company that made the plane, issued a statement saying it had stopped providing any service to the 13-seat plane and was complying with international sanctions against Russia. Flightradar24 found the registration number of this aircraft as RA-02795. According to reports, Prigozhin was taken to Belarus on this luxury jet when he launched a rebellion against Putin.

According to the flight tracking data, the last accurate location of the aircraft before the crash was received at 3.11 am. However, due to signal jamming or some interference in the network, not much data could be acquired. Some more data was acquired for the next nine minutes. During this, the plane was recorded climbing up and down several thousand feet several times. Flightradar24 last received data from the aircraft at 03.20.