In a major development on Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin-- the head of the Wagner mercenary army that fought in Ukraine and has been blamed for doing Russia's messy work in Syria and Africa and leading a brief mutiny against President Vladimir Putin-- was killed along with nine others in a dramatic flight crash. However, there were speculations that the plane could not be tagged "ill-fated" as it had shown "unusual descent" in the last 30 seconds before it crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region.
According to Russia's emergency situations ministry, the 13-seater Embraer (EMBR3.SA) Legacy 600 executive jet took off from Moscow for Putin's hometown, St. Petersburg.
What went wrong?
According to Flightradar24-- a Swedish internet-based service that shows real-time aircraft flight tracking information on a map-- the aircraft was flying normally until 3:19 p.m. GMT.
It claimed that the aircraft made a "sudden downward vertical" and within 30 seconds, the plane had descended more than 8,000 feet from its cruising altitude of 28,000 feet. As per Flightradar24, there was "no indication that there was anything wrong with the aircraft" before it witnessed a dramatic drop.
"After levelling off at 28,000 feet at 15:10 UTC, the aircraft continued in level flight at consistent speed until 15:19 UTC at which point the vertical rate decreased dramatically and the aircraft descended briefly before climbing to a maximum altitude of 30,100 feet before descending back to roughly 27,500 feet," according to Flightradar24.
"It again climbs, reaching 29,300 feet before levelling off once again. It then descends, with the final data received at 15:20:14 UTC at an altitude of 19,725 feet. The altitude graph below shows the final 32 seconds of received altitude data," it noted.
As of now, it wasn't clear what led to the crash, but multiple media reports claimed it could be possible that the jet was shot from the ground. Russia, without elaborating the details of the crash, said it has opened a criminal case and is currently investigating the fatal crash.
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Prigozhin-- a Russian oligarch, mercenary chief, and a close confidant of Putin-- is sometimes called "Putin's chef", as he owned restaurants and catering companies that provide services for the Kremlin. However, ever since Putin escalated the war against his neighbouring nation, Ukraine, he had been leading the group, called Wagner. However, his history with leadership in Moscow dates back decades.
Earlier in June Russia witnessed a series of dramatic events after Prigozhin called for mutiny-- in the event that demonstrated a feud between the country's official and private armies publically.
Subsequently, multiple videos showed Wagner fighters capturing the city of Rostov before racing north in convoy, transporting tanks and armoured trucks and smashing through barricades set up to stop them.
Later, multiple media reports also claimed oil depots and crucial buildings were blown by the private armed group.
However, the mutiny was averted after Belarus President and Putin's top ally, Alexander Lukashenko, stepped in and brokered a deal to stop the mutiny and moved to his country. Later, a month after the deal, he suddenly appeared in a video where he could be seen with his soldiers inside the Belarusian border.
Since then, he appeared in several videos but did not disclose the location. Earlier on August 21, a video appeared wherein he could be seen in the African region. But, the authenticity of the video wasn't traced.
