YEKATERINBURG, Russia, May 5 (UPI) -- Russian hunters found the remains of 10 people at the crash site of a single-engine utility plane that went missing in June in the Urals, officials said.
The Antonov An-2 biplane, which seats 12, was reported missing from an airfield in the town of Serov on June 11, RIA Novosti reported.
Regional police allege it was taken by pilot Khatib Kashapov and at least 9 others while they were drinking.
Officials called off the search for the crash site in November due to bad weather and had planned to resume this spring, RIA Novosti reported Sunday.
Hunters found the crash site Saturday on a marshland about five miles from where the plane took off.
"At the site of the inspection, skeletonized remains of the bodies of at least 10 people have been found," said the spokeswoman for the regional Transport Investigation Department.
Russia's Investigative Committee said Sunday it launched a criminal probe into the hijacking and crash.
"The Urals Investigative Department has restarted investigative measures in the criminal case instituted in the wake of the disappearance of the An-2 plane in June 2012," the committee said in a statement.
The committee alleged there was a breach of flight safety rules and the rules of aircraft operation that caused the deaths of more than two people from carelessness, RIA Novosti reported.
