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03-09-2024
MOSCOW: Rescuers in the Russian far-east have found no survivors in the wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared while carrying 22 people most of them tourists.
The aircraft went missing on Saturday after taking off from a base near the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula. Officials said on Sunday that 17 bodies had been found so far.
That area, a popular tourist destination, is famous for its active volcanoes. The cause of the crash in unclear.
Such a
ccidents are relatively frequent in Russia’s far-east, which is sparsely populated and suffers harsh weather. Three years ago eight people were killed when a tourist helicopter crashed into a lake in Kamchatka.
The Mi-8T helicopter that disappeared from radar on Saturday was carrying 19 tourists and three crew.
The wreckage was found on Sunday morning in a hilly area, Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said on Telegram.
Footage posted to the messaging app by Russia’s emergencies ministry showed helicopter debris lying near a slope close to a large wooded hill. Officials said the wreckage was found near the location where the helicopter went off radar.
An emergency ministry official, Ivan Lemikhov, said17 bodies had been found so far and searches for those still missing had been paused, slated to resume at daybreak on Monday.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that pilot error, possibly caused by fog, was the main theory regarding the cause of the crash.
Earlier, earlier officials said that thick fog was hampering rescuers’ efforts.
The aircraft was owned by Vityaz-Aero, a Kamchatka-based company that organizes flights for tourists.
Designed during the Soviet-era, the Mi-8 helicopter is still widely used in Russia.
On August 12, a tourist helicopter with 16 people on board has crashed into a lake in Russia’s Far East, officials say.
There were eight known survivors, Russian media quoted emergencies ministry officials as saying.
Thirteen tourists, including a child, and three crew were on board when the Mi-8 crashed and sank in Kurile Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The helicopter is lying at a depth of 137 metres (450ft) too deep for divers to operate, the officials say.
The aircraft belonging to the Vityaz-Aero company crashed about 700 metres from the shore, the emergencies ministry said, adding that specialist deep-water equipment was expected to arrive shortly.
Tourist Viktor Stvolkin, one of the survivors, later gave a dramatic account of how he had managed to escape from the sinking aircraft.
He was quoted by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency saying that he was asleep during the flight and only woke up when “the water hit my face in a stream”.
“My friend’s son was sitting next to me. He was fastened with seat belts, and I did not have time to pull him [free]. I only managed to unfasten myself.”
Stvolkin added that he had managed to escape through the cockpit’s smashed window from a depth of about eight or nine metres.
According to preliminary information, the aircraft was travelling from the village of Nikolayevka to the Kuril Lake and the Khodutka volcano when it crashed, the emergencies ministry said. (Int’l News Desk)
