YEKATERINBURG, April 19. /TASS/. A total the three persons who were aboard a Robinson helicopter, which disappeared near Bely island in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area on Monday are dead, the press service of the regional branch of the Ministry for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense told TASS.
"The Robinson helicopter had to crash-land and the people aboard died," a spokesman said.
Human bodies and the debris of the helicopter were found by rescuers in the vicinity of the Bely island. They got there on two Buran snowmobiles after a weather monitoring station had picked a signal from the helicopter's gauge.
Three rescue workers were dispatched to the site and found the fragments of the helicopter and the dead people there.
The Urals branch of the Russian Investigations Committee's transport accidents section told TASS an inquiry into the death of people as a results of rough landing.
Causes of the situation will be established and the Investigations Committee will take procedural actions on their basis.
A report on the loss of communications with the helicopter came at 22:15 Moscow Standard Time on Monday from a duty officer.
The Emergencies Ministry says three helicopters were making a flight from the Komi region to Bely. Weather deteriorated sharply during the approach to the island and one of the helicopters separated from the party to do terrain reconnaissance while the other two headed for the town of Sabetta.
Then radio communications with the first helicopters were lost.