TYUMEN, December 21 (Itar-Tass) — Flight recorders - an emergency flight parameters recorder, a speech recorder and a reserve recorder, have been removed from the landing site of a Mi-26 helicopter which made a rough landing near the settlement of Tailakovo in the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district on Monday.
The press service of the Urals transport investigative department told Itar-Tass Wednesday that the investigation was studying two main versions accounting for the helicopter incident - technical defects on board and a plots' error. Neither version has been given priority, the press service said. An initial examination of the landing site was carried out and a forensic examination appointed, it said.
On Wednesday experts of the Surgut transport investigative department will meet members of a commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee who arrived in Nefteyugansk to outline joint tasks and priorities in the investigation.
The Mi-26 helicopter, owned by the Utair company, which had 15 tons of diesel fuel on board, made a rough landing in the area of the settlement of Tailakovo. There were six people on board. A flight engineer was killed in the incident. The five survivors, who received injuries of a different degree of seriousness, have been hospitalized in Surgut. Two of them are in an intensive therapy block of the Surgut Traumatology Center.
A criminal case has been opened on charges of violation of the rules of air navigation safety and handling aircraft, which entailed human death through carelessness.
The UTair Company which owns the helicopter has suspended flights of its Mi-26 helicopters in Russia and abroad.