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Want to see another Wagner plane explode?

A plane purportedly linked to the Russian Wagner private military company (PMC) crashed in spectacular fashion on a runway in Mali recently.

The dramatic moment was caught on camera and posted all over X (formerly Twitter). Newsweek reported that it was a Soviet-era Ilyushin Il-76 landing at Gao Airport in the West African country on September 23, overrunning the runway at high speed, before breaking into pieces and catching fire.

Behold:

On September 23rd a Mali Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 crashed at Gao, Mali. The aircraft touched down late, overran the runway and went down an embankment ending with the aircraft breaking up…@RadarBoxCom

pic.twitter.com/ctPQC3zNaR

— Flight Emergency (@FlightEmergency) September 27, 2023

It is not known what happened to those on board, but there has been speculation that they included members of the Wagner Group, which has a presence in Mali. Wagner provides security services in parts of Africa and also gives the Kremlin a crucial link to the continent’s rich resources.

Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which claims to have links to Russia’s security services, posted that “according to preliminary data, there could be mercenaries from PMC Wagner on board.”

However, the Telegram account Grey Zone, which has links to Wagner, denied that there were PMC members on board at the time of the crash:

“In an information vacuum, there are rumors that the plane belonged to the Wagner Group. But this is not true,” said the post on Wednesday. “This chartered Il-76 board was used by local forces to transport goods for various purposes. There were no personnel of the Wagner Group on this board.”

An airport source and local official told the news magazine Jeune Afrique that the plane belonged to the Malian army transporting Wagner soldiers and was overloaded; “The causes are not yet known,” the airport source told the outlet.

Anyway, Wagner and planes in Africa don’t seem to gel. Following the death of the Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin last month in a plane crash in Russia, there is growing uncertainty about the future of Wagner in Africa.

His death came two months after his troops staged a mutiny against Russia’s military establishment which was a challenge to Vladimir Putin’s leadership. The Kremlin denied any involvement in the crash that killed him.

[source:newsweek]