Antonov An-26

The An-26 is a rugged military freighter that sometimes carries passengers, and on those flights its record is weak. Up to 7 October 2026 it has had 99 fatal events, but only 14 count as passenger accidents, in an estimated 3.2 million passenger flights. The rest were military, cargo and other non-passenger flights. If you are offered a seat on one, the operator and the airport matter far more than the airframe.

What the An-26 is

Antonov built the An-26 in Kyiv from the An-24 airliner. It first flew in 1969 and entered service in 1970, and about 1,400 were built, most for the Soviet air force and its allies. It kept the An-24's high wing and two turboprops, added a rear ramp for vehicles and freight, and an extra small jet engine in the right nacelle for take-off on hot or high strips. The An-26B is a cargo version; the An-26-100 and An-26B-100 are conversions with seats for about 40 passengers.

About 120 remain in service. Air forces still fly many. Civil ones mostly haul freight in Russia, Central Asia and Africa. Scheduled passenger flights on the type are now rare and concentrated in the Russian Far East, where Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise used it on routes to coastal settlements with no road link.

What we count, and what we leave out

Of the 99 fatal events, 58 were military flights, from Afghanistan and Angola in the 1980s to a Russian crash near Sevastopol in March 2026. Another 17 were cargo flights, with Aeroflot in Soviet times and later mostly with small operators in Africa, and 5 were calibration, ferry and other non-passenger flights. Five more were acts of unlawful interference, including attacks on Afghan civil An-26s in 1985 and 1987. None of these count, because our flight counts cover passenger flights only. Our methodology explains the rules.

The 14 counted accidents

Most happened where a freighter fills in for an airline:

• 6 July 2021, Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise, Palana: a 1982 aircraft flew into a coastal cliff in fog after descending below the minimum height. All 28 died.
• 19 August 2012, Alfa Airlines, near Talodi, Sudan: a 1974 aircraft carrying government officials, including a minister, hit a mountain in a dust storm. All 32 died.
• 9 January 2007, Aeriantur-M, near Balad, Iraq: a charter with Turkish construction workers crashed on a second attempt to land in fog. 34 of 35 died.
• May to September 2005, Congo: three crashes (Kisangani Airlift and Galaxy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Air Kasai in the neighbouring Republic of Congo) killed 34. The Galaxy aircraft at Isiro was still flying although its certificate of airworthiness had expired a year earlier.
• 17 June 1993, Tajikistan Airlines, near Tbilisi: a charter with traders and their goods stalled in severe turbulence and spun in. All 33 died.

Others include an Ancargo flight in Angola in 2000 (49 dead) that ASN lists as an accident although UNITA rebels claimed to have shot it down, and a 1989 Ariana Afghan flight whose ramp door opened in flight.

The aircraft or the operating environment?

Mostly the environment. The An-26 is built for rough strips and has no design flaw that explains these crashes; flights into terrain, weather and poor oversight do. But it is a 1960s design with an analogue cockpit, often 40 or more years old, flown by operators who would not pass an airline audit elsewhere. Compare it with the ATR 72, which serves similar short routes with a far better record.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show AN26. You board through a side door or the rear ramp, and the cabin often has side-facing or folding seats with cargo strapped nearby. If a newer aircraft flies the same route, take it.