On 6 March 2018 an Antonov An-26 transport aircraft crashed on approach to Khmeimim air base in Syria, killing all 39 people on board. All of them were servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces,^[1] including Major-General Vladimir Yeremeyev.^[2]

At about 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) the Russian Antonov An-26 went down about 500 metres (1,640 ft) from the runway.^[3] The preliminary cause was attributed to technical malfunction.^[3] Based on reports from the location, the Russian Ministry of Defense ruled out the possibility that it was shot down.^[4] The Investigative Committee of Russia and the Russian Military Prosecutor's Office opened criminal cases concerning the crash.

The Islamic militant group Jaysh al-Islam later claimed the responsibility for the crash; according to Ad-Diyar, five militants shot at the aircraft with heavy machine guns when it was 100 m from the ground. It was suggested that the claim might be false, as the group has made opportunistic claims in the past, as have some other groups.^[5]

The accident aircraft was an Antonov An-26, registration RF-92955, msn 10107. It had first flown in 1980.^[6] This accident is the fifteenth An-26 fatal crash in this decade with a total of 159 deaths, none of these flights were scheduled passenger airline operations.^[7]