5 bodies recovered after Russian helicopter crash
Print Edition
RUSSIAN divers yesterday recovered five bodies from the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed into a lake in the remote northwestern tundra with 18 people including top regional officials and businessmen on board.
Two people were rushed to hospital with broken legs after the Mi-8 helicopter smashed into Munozero Lake in a remote area on the northwestern Kola Peninsula late on Saturday.
With five confirmed to have lost their lives, the remaining 11 are considered missing and feared dead.
A deputy governor of the Murmansk region as well as the head and deputy head of Apatit, a manufacturer of components for mineral fertilizers, Alexei Grigoryev and Konstantin Nikitin, are believed to have been on board the helicopter.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Moscow-based Investigative Committee, told reporters that five bodies had so far been recovered. Officials refused to declare the rest of the missing dead.
“Until the bodies are found, they are considered alive,” Apatit spokeswoman Olga Kryuchek said.
The two survivors were found floating on the water fastened to their chairs, said Denis Pushin, a spokesman for the Murmansk regional administration.
“Fishermen found them,” he said. “The two survivors have concussion and are in shock.”
He initially said the passengers were most likely on a fishing trip but later retracted his statement, noting it was “a working visit.”
A deputy regional governor, Sergei Skomorokhov, as well as several other top officials, are believed to have been among the passengers.
Investigators cited a possible aircraft malfunction and bad weather as likely causes of the crash.
“The pilot found himself in difficult meteorological conditions, lost his sense of direction and hit the surface of the water,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Officials could not begin a rescue operation when they received the first reports on Saturday due to poor weather. Some 100 people were working at the scene of the crash yesterday.
Aviation crashes in Russia are often blamed on ageing aircraft and poor maintenance.
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