MOSCOW

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that one of its military planes crashed over the Crimean Peninsula, killing 29 people.

The ministry said in a statement that there were 23 passengers and six crew members on board.

"During a scheduled flight over the Crimean peninsula on March 31 at around 6:00 PM Moscow time (1500GMT), communication with the An-26 military transport aircraft was lost," it said.

A search and rescue team located the crash site of the An-26 aircraft, and there were no survivors, it added.

A commission from the ministry is working at the crash site. No evidence of external impact on the aircraft has been found, and the preliminary cause of the incident is a technical malfunction, the ministry noted.