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19 people die in Mi-8 crash in Yakutia, helicopter burns down

The helicopter was carrying three crewmen and 25 passengers

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 2 (Itar-Tass) - Nineteen people died in the crash of a helicopter Mi-8 in Yakutia, the helicopter burnt down, the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

“According to available reports, the helicopter Mi-8T RA-22657 of the air company Polar Airlines crashed 66 kilometres away from the settlement Deputatsky on July 2. The helicopter was carrying three crewmen and 25 passengers. The crewmen said that 19 people died in the crash, the helicopter burnt down,” MAK said.

According to updated reports, five people survived in the crash of a helicopter Mi-8 in Yakutia.

“It is absolutely clear that the crewmen and two passengers are alive. As for other people, the situation is being inquired,” Yakutia’s Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Skrybykin said in a video conference session at a meeting in the Ministry of Emergency Situations on Tuesday.

The Mi-8 made a hard landing supposedly because of loss of control, an official source told Itar-Tass.

According to the preliminary information, the Mi-8 fell on a hill when it was out of control because of air flows.

The information that the Mi-8 made a hard landing 45 km northwest of the airfield at the settlement of Deputatsky in the Ust-Yana district was received by the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s crisis management centre in Yakutia at 05:20 Moscow time on Tuesday. The captain gave the information, using satellite communication, the press service of the Far Eastern regional centre of the Emergencies Ministry said.

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