MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. The panel of inquiry probing into the circumstances and causes of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Ka-32 helicopter’s rough landing in the Stavropol Territory has retrieved the voice and flight data recorders and passed them on to specialists for decoding, a source in the investigation has said.
“The causes of the incident may be identified only after the data from the black boxes have been recovered and interpreted. At this point two likely versions are being considered — a technical mishap or a human error,” the source said.
The incident occurred in the Mineralnyie Vody district of the Stavropol Territory near the village of Sukhaya Padina at 18:35 on Tuesday. A K-32 helicopter carrying five crew made a rough landing during a routine training flight and caught fire. The pilot died. The four other people on board were injured. The helicopter burnt down beyond repair.
On Wednesday morning an Antonov-148 plane of the Emergencies Ministry brought the survivors to Moscow for treatment. Two of them are in grave but stable condition and the state of the two others is medium grave.
Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov has dispatched a panel of specialists from the head office to the Stavropol territory for investigation.
The southern transport investigations department of the Investigative Committee is proceeding with its own inquiries.