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MOSCOW (Reuter) - A Russian air force Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane crashed in Siberia on Wednesday night, killing all 23 people on board, the Emergency Services Ministry said on Thursday.
Earlier the ministry had put the total number of people aboard the four-engined plane at 19.
A ministry spokesman told Reuters all 10 crew members and the 13 passengers had been killed. Only 10 bodies had been recovered so far, he said.
The plane, which was also carrying 30 tons of commercial freight, took off from Abakan in southern Siberia on a flight to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula.
Officials said the plane lost contact with ground control just seven minutes after takeoff.
Interfax news agency said rescue workers had found wreckage and several bodies 10 miles from Abakan.
The Il-76, designed as a military tank transporter, is a mainstay of the Russian armed forces but it is not unusual for air force planes to be contracted out for private ventures as servicemen struggle to make ends meet amid the country's economic crisis.
The Il-76, with its distinctive low-slung fuselage and bulbous glass nose-cone, has become a familiar sight on the world's freight routes since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A number have been involved in accidents in recent months. One owned by the Kazakh airline KazAir was involved in the world's worst mid-air collision with a Saudi jumbo jet near New Delhi on November 12.
Last April, an Il-76 came down in Kamchatka, killing all aboard. One came down near Belgrade in August, killing 10 crew. The Ukrainian crew of another Il-76 died when it crashed on takeoff at Kinshasa in June.
A surge in air accidents in Russia in the past few years has been blamed on the country's financial difficulties, which have led to poor maintenance standards and placed extra pressure on crews.