Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s doomed private plane showed no signs of distress until a sudden drop 30 seconds before the deadly crash in Russia — amid speculation that the rogue warlord’s plane may have been downed by a bomb hidden in a crate of wine.
The Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet, with Prigozhin and other senior Wagner Group members listed among the 10 passengers, made a “sudden downward vertical” at 5:19 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to Ian Petchenik of the flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
Within about 30 seconds, the jet had plummeted more than 8,000 feet from its cruising altitude of 28,000 feet.
“Whatever happened, happened quickly,” Petchenik said. “They may have been wrestling [with the aircraft] after whatever happened.