Grenade fragments were found on the body of the victim of the plane crash carrying Prigozhin
(Dan Tri) – Russian President Vladimir Putin stated the possible cause of the crash of the plane carrying leader of the private military group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, based on evidence obtained from the scene.
The scene of the plane crash that killed Mr. Prigozhin and Wagner leaders (Photo: AP).
Reuters reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 5 that the plane crash that killed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in August appeared to be caused by a grenade exploding inside the plane and not due to an attack.
The Embraer private jet carrying Prigozhin to St Petersburg crashed north of Moscow, killing all 10 people on board on August 23, including two other senior Wagner officials, four guards.
Mr. Putin said that the plane could have been blown up from the inside and that the head of the Russian investigative committee reported to him a few days ago about some new information.
`Grenade fragments were found in the bodies of those killed in the accident,` Mr. Putin revealed.
`There was no external impact on the plane – this is a proven fact,` Putin said, appearing to refute earlier speculation that the plane had been shot down.
Mr. Putin did not provide further details about how the grenade may have exploded on the plane.
Previously, military news site Avia Pro quoted a source as saying that Russian investigators are leaning towards the theory that the plane carrying tycoon Wagner crashed due to an explosion in the aircraft cabin.
Experts seem to reject the theory that the plane was shot down by air defense systems.
According to the source, one hypothesis is that the explosive device may have been placed in the tail of the plane, as evidenced by the fact that the tail of the plane fell several kilometers from the body.
Jeff Guzzetti, former director of the accident investigation agency of the Federal Aviation Administration and the US National Transportation Safety Board, said that a serious incident involving the plane’s structure occurred during the flight.
`An incident cannot happen unless there is some trigger factor. In the videos (shared), the plane does not look like it is flying, but is falling like a water bottle,` Mr. Guzzetti said.
Video of the moment the plane suspected of carrying tycoon Wagner crashed (Video: RT).
After reviewing video of the plane crash, images of debris and flight tracking data, Mr. Guzzetti said that the evidence all showed `signs of an explosion on the plane`.
After tycoon Prigozhin died, the fate of private military group Wagner became a topic of concern.
The US-based ISW organization mentioned information that the Wagner private military force recently returned to the Ukrainian battlefield after withdrawing from Bakhmut in May and moving to Belarus after the failed mutiny in June.
A famous Telegram channel related to Wagner said on October 1 that Pavel Prigozhin, 25 years old, son of Wagner tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin, is preparing to take over the management of this force.