Cargo Plane Malfunction Causes Gold Bars To Spill All Over Runway

An airport runway in eastern Russia got a shower of gold on Thursday. A cargo plane carrying several tons of gold bars suffered a hatch malfunction during takeoff, which caused the plane to spill precious metals all over the runway, the Russian news agency TASS reported.

The plane was carrying nine tons of gold and lost about a third of its cargo due to the accident. A “strong flow of air” during takeoff caused the An-12 transport aircraft’s cargo hatch to pop off, resulting in the spill. It was taking off from the Siberian city of Yakutsk, meaning authorities had to brave the cold weather to get back the gold.

The story was bizarre enough to generate its own Twitter moment. One Russian account tweeted an image of a broken off piece of the aircraft lying in the snow.

Meanwhile, the Siberian Times captured several images of the plane, the damage that was done to it and the gold bars splayed out around the runway. The Times said the plane’s load was worth 21 billion rubles, or around $368 million.

The gold was carried by an An-12, a Soviet transport craft that is still in service in various parts of the world. TASS reported that there was a minor gold rush among the locals, but apparently, all of the gold was safely recovered.