MOSCOW, May 26: A cargo plane crashed as it prepared to land in the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals region of Russia on Monday, killing all nine people aboard, a spokeswoman for the emergency situations ministry said.

“The pilot told ground control that there was smoke in the cockpit and he decided to return to the airport. The plane crashed as he was coming in for landing,” the spokeswoman, Natalya Andryanova, said on state television.

“All the crew members died,” Andryanova said. Officials quoted by Russian news agencies said there were nine people on board the otherwise empty An-12, a large cargo plane that has been in production since the 1960s.

The crash happened 12 kilometres north of Chelyabinsk.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered his condolences. —AFP