BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: A Russian Defense Ministry plane with 75 people on board crashed into a mountain Wednesday in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. CNN's Steve Harrigan reports.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the plane that crashed in country of Georgia was a military transport plane. It was en route from an air force base just outside of Moscow to the city of Batumi. That is on the Black Sea. It's a resort town. Russia also has a military base in Batumi. Now this was a regularly scheduled flight. It was carrying servicemen and their families. Seventy-five people on board. That's 64 passengers and 11 crew members. No sign of any survivors. Rescue operators in Georgia were sent out immediately to the scene. It's a very difficult place to get to. It's a high mountainous region near the border with Turkey. So far those rescue workers have just turned up fragments of the plane. No sign of any survivors on board. Now the plane itself was an Ilyushin 18. It's one of the very oldest planes in the Russian Air Force, It's no longer used for civilian flights. It went into operation about 1959. Also the weather was extremely bad in Georgia, with heavy rains and thunderstorms. Observers on the ground saw the plane lose altitude very quickly and heard a loud crash. The plane is presumed to have crashed into mountain. Seventy-five people on board. As of yet, no word about survivors or the cause behind this crash. I'm Steve Harrigan, CNN, reporting from Moscow.
Russian Defense Ministry Plane Crashes: Passengers Feared Dead