Plane crash in Siberia kills 9: Agencies

MOSCOW - A Russian plane crashed in Siberia on Thursday, killing nine people, domestic news agencies reported, citing local emergency service officials.

The Soviet-built Antonov An-12 plane belonging to an aircraft factory in Novosibirsk was carrying six crew and three others on a flight to another factory in Irkutsk, Itar-Tass reported.

The turboprop plane fell on warehouses at a military unit outside Irkutsk, causing a fire, but no casualties were immediately reported on the ground, an emergency service official said.

Technical malfunction and pilot error were seen as potential causes, a security source was quoted as saying.

Russia and other former Soviet republics together have one of the world's worst air-traffic safety records, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average in 2011, according to the International Air Transport Association.