A HULKING Russian military transport plane smashed into a reservoir after horrific reports it began falling apart in the sky.
Divers have been deployed in a macabre search for the victims of the stricken aircraft.
The Soviet-era An-22 was carrying seven people when it came down in the Ivanovo region, northeast of Moscow.
Wreckage from the doomed plane was later spotted floating in the vast Uvod Reservoir, with more debris scattered on land nearby.
All seven on board are feared dead.
Reports say there were five crew members and two passengers in the plane at the time of the crash.
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The aircraft was said to be on a scheduled test flight following repairs when disaster struck.
Emergency services rushed to the scene as divers were sent into the murky waters in a grim search for survivors and bodies.
The An-22 first flew in 1965 and was once the largest aircraft of its type in the world.
Known by its NATO reporting name “Cock”, the giant plane measures 187ft long with a massive 210ft wingspan and is powered by four turboprop engines with contra-rotating propellers.
It can carry payloads of up to 80 tonnes.
Despite being due to be phased out last year, the ageing aircraft has remained in use by Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Fragments were found both in the Uvod or Uvodsky Reservoir and across nearby land.
A Russian news outlet reported: “The crew did their best to steer the aircraft away from populated areas until the last moment.”
The plane crashed in an uninhabited area.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, though officials have pointed to a possible technical failure.
For now, Russian authorities are not blaming sabotage or an external attack, with the crash happening far from the war zone.
“According to eyewitnesses, the An-22 suddenly began to disintegrate in mid-air, and its fuselage fragments crashed into the Uvodskoye Reservoir near the village of Ivankovo,” reported Kommersant business news outlet.
Rescue teams continued working at the scene amid the wreckage.
This particular An-22 Antey has been described as “the last operational aircraft of this type in the Russian Armed Forces”.
The plane was reportedly 51 years old.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said a commission from the country’s Aerospace Forces was being dispatched to the crash site to establish all the circumstances of the horror.
It follows the death of two Russian airmen whose ejection seats sent them hurtling into the concrete roof of a hangar.
The unnamed pilot and the navigator reportedly “sustained injuries incompatible with life”.
Russian bombers use ejection seats designed to save a crew member’s life if the aircraft is lost.
When the pilot pulls the handle, the canopy is blown off and a small charge pushes the seat upward.