Children among 19 dead in Siberia helicopter crash
Source: AFP |
July 3, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NINETEEN people, including children, died when a MI-8 helicopter crashed in eastern Siberia yesterday, the latest disaster to hit Russia's accident-prone aviation industry.
A Moscow-based aviation committee, citing the surviving crew, said 19 of the 28 people on board were killed, but the emergencies ministry refused to confirm the toll.
The ministry said rescue teams were having a hard time reaching the crash site in the mountainous woods of the northern Yakutia region, with efforts hampered by bad weather.
"There were three crew members and 25 passengers on board," the Interstate Aviation Committee said in a statement. "Nineteen people died, the aircraft burnt down." Of the 25 passengers, 11 were children, officials said.
The accident apparently happened when the Polar Airlines helicopter performed a hard landing in poor weather, 45 kilometers northwest of the small town of Deputatsky.
A spokesman for the regional government in Yakutia, Afanasy Yegorov, said the crash site was so difficult to reach that the rescue teams had to land their aircraft some 30 kilometers away and continue their journey using all-terrain vehicles.
He said the helicopter was a regular flight from Deputatsky to Kazachye and flying over a mountain range when a downdraft pushed it to the ground.
A Moscow-based aviation committee, citing the surviving crew, said 19 of the 28 people on board were killed, but the emergencies ministry refused to confirm the toll.
The ministry said rescue teams were having a hard time reaching the crash site in the mountainous woods of the northern Yakutia region, with efforts hampered by bad weather.
"There were three crew members and 25 passengers on board," the Interstate Aviation Committee said in a statement. "Nineteen people died, the aircraft burnt down." Of the 25 passengers, 11 were children, officials said.
The accident apparently happened when the Polar Airlines helicopter performed a hard landing in poor weather, 45 kilometers northwest of the small town of Deputatsky.
A spokesman for the regional government in Yakutia, Afanasy Yegorov, said the crash site was so difficult to reach that the rescue teams had to land their aircraft some 30 kilometers away and continue their journey using all-terrain vehicles.
He said the helicopter was a regular flight from Deputatsky to Kazachye and flying over a mountain range when a downdraft pushed it to the ground.
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