All 11 crew members of a Russian military plane have been killed after their plane crashed into water during a training exercise.

The Defense Ministry said Saturday that the Tupolev Tu-142 plane disappeared from radar as it was coming to the end of a training mission on Friday.

"We can presume that all the crew aboard the Tu-142 were killed," a ministry source told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The anti-submarine plane crashed in the Tatarsky Strait, about 15-20 km off Russia's Pacific coast.

Rescuers located the wreckage of the plane on Saturday morning at a depth of about 44 meters. A special commission is investigating the cause of the crash.

All flights by the air force of the Russian Pacific Fleet have been suspended pending the results of the investigation into the accident.

Deadly crashes are frequent occurrences in Russia's armed forces, whose military hardware still includes ageing Soviet-era equipment.

Last Sunday, an Ilyushin transport plane of the Interior Ministry crashed minutes after takeoff in the region of Yakutia, killing all 11 people on board.

AGB/MMN