Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief armed rebellion against the Russian military earlier this year, has been killed in a plane crash. Video / NZ Gerald / Telegram
The crew of the Embraer jet carrying Russian mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin almost certainly did not know who would be onboard, ahead of Wednesday’s fatal air incident.
Cabin crew member Kristina Raspopova was on standby on Monday, awaiting an “important call” according to family. They said she only knew she would be travelling on Wednesday or Thursday.
All three crew and seven passengers were reported dead on Wednesday after the jet dropped off the radar, after 6pm local time. Images shared to social media claim to show the smoking wreckage falling to earth.
Kristina Raspopova was named as one of the cabin crew of Prigozhin's private jet.
Kristina Raspopova, 39, was identified as one of the crew by her brother Yevgeny Raspopov, a deputy prosecutor in the Chelyabinsk region.
Kristina was working as cabin crew assisting pilots Rustam Karimov, 29, and Alexei Levshin, 51.
He told telegram channel VChK-OGPU that his sister had travelled to Moscow just a couple of days ago, where she was waiting for work on a flight to St Petersburg. She would not have known that Wagner PMC chief Prigozhin would have been onboard, or that it would be her last flight.
Chillingly, Yevgeny said his sister had been uncertain as to when they would fly as the plane was “being repaired before departure”.
The contract flight attendant kept a personal blog on social media. The last post was of a packed suitcase and breakfast in Moscow.
The last entry from flight attendant Kristina Raspopova's blog.
A source who knew both Yevgeny and Kristina told Moscow radio channel MSK1, the flight attendant “always had a strong character”, describing her as “punchy”. Kristina, whose family was originally from former Soviet Kazakhstan, was divorced and working from the Russian capital.
“He did not know that his sister was flying on Prigogine’s plane. I only knew that she works on a business jet, which is rented out to anyone who can afford it.”
Attendant Kristina Raspopova, 39, was named on the flight manifest of the Embraer 600 which crashed in mysterious circumstances.
Prigozhin’s plane: Embraer Legacy 600 had good safety record
The Embraer Legacy 600 was known to belong to the Wagner PMC group.
The plane with the registry markings RA-02795 was also seen flying from Moscow to Minsk, in Belarus, following the Wagner mutiny in June, according to Reuters.
It was registered to MNT-Aero, a subsidiary of Wagner PMC.
The private passenger jet was 16 years old, and had no serious repair history. It came into Prigozhin’s possession in 2018 and was re-registered in September 2020 after sanctions on Russian aircraft sales.
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, reportedly died when a private jet he was said to be on crashed on August 23, killing all 10 people on board. Photo / AP
Plane manufacturer Embraer told Reuters they were aware of the incident on Wednesday, but did not have further information. The plane’s service records were in order and there had only been one recorded air incident involving the model in the past 20 years.
Despite the restrictions on air parts sold to Russia, they made it clear a mechanical failure was extremely unlikely.
“Embraer has complied with international sanctions imposed on Russia,” the plane manufacturer said.
Telegram channel VChK-OGPU claimed there was an inspection of the charter jet from prospective buyers, who visited the aircraft on the ground on Monday at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Video surfaced via Telegram, claiming to be of a tour of inside the business jet taken by a woman holding a handbag. There were no apparent plans to sell the aircraft, which had belonged to Wagner PMC since November 2018.
The Embraer belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin unexpectedly lost altitude and crashed on Wednesday evening, after departing Moscow. Screenshot / Flightradar 24
Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsiya) said an investigation was being conducted and released the 10 names of those on the flight manifest.
“The Commission of the Federal Air Transport Agency is starting initial actions at the scene of the accident, and has also begun collecting factual materials on the training of the crew, the technical condition of the aircraft, the meteorological situation on the flight route, the work of dispatch services and ground radio equipment,” read Rosaviatsiya’s statement.
Passengers were given as Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner Group co-founder Dmitry Utkin, along with Sergey Propustin, Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, and Nikolay Matuseyev. The crewmembers were identified as Alexei Levshin, Rustam Karimov, and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.
Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane were inaccurate.
However, a US intelligence assessment determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics”.
