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Identification of An-2 crash victims to last a month

Plane fragments were found one year after An-2 disappearance in Sverdlovsk region

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

YEKATERINBURG, May 7 (Itar-Tass) - Head of the Ural region investigation department on the transport Dmitry Putintsev said it will take a month to identify the victims killed in the An-2 biplane crash in the Sverdlovsk region.

"Blood samples were taken from the victims' closest kin in Serov hospital," Putintsev told a news conference on Tuesday.

Earlier reports said DNA tests would run for two weeks. Experts pushed the deadline because of a large amount of human bones and their fragments /more than 1,000 pieces/ found at the crash scene.

Investigators confirmed that the An-2 plane had no flight data recorders on board.

"It is therefore impossible to reconstruct the last minutes of life of the people who were on board the cropduster," regional police spokesman Valery Gorelykh told Itar-Tass on Monday.

On Monday, a commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee /IAC/ began to look into the cause of crash.

The investigators will consider two main leads of the An-2 crash: technical failure or piloting error. Under another lead, the plane might have fallen after hitting a tree when landing.

Plane fragments were found one year after An-2 disappearance by local hunters Sergei Skryabin and Alexander Kuznetsov, as they were inspecting hunting grounds in a wood eight kilometers form the town of Serov. Remains of 13 people who had been on board, were found as well. They were taken to Yekaterinburg for forensic tests.

Sverdlovsk region governor Yevgeny Kuivashev ordered the local government to consider financial and social support for relatives of the dead An-2 passengers. The families will receive one million roubles in compensation each and the authorities will also pay the funeral arrangements. Also, Kuivashev ordered to consider remuneration for the hunters who had found the plane.

On June 11, 2012, An-2 pilot Khatip Kashapov took off without permission. The plane belonged to the Avia Zov company. The search was officially halted on November 13, 2012. Search parties surveyed more than 1 million square kilometers of terrain. The 30-million-rouble rescue effort involved more than 1,500 people, including police, volunteers and civilians, in the Perm Territory, the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Kurgan and Sverdlovsk regions and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area.

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