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Russian rescuers find no signs of Mi-8 helicopter along Spitsbergen coast

On Tuesday, Russian rescuers examined a 28-kilometer stretch of the Spitsbergen coast in search for bodies or helicopter fragments

LONGYEARBYEN /Norway/, October 31. /TASS/. Russian rescuers, who returned to Longyearbyen after examining another stretch of Spitsbergen coast near the crash site of a Russian helicopter on Tuesday evening, found no objects related to the accident, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene.

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Norwegian rescuers find one body from Russian helicopter crashing off Spitsbergen

On Tuesday, Russian rescuers examined a 28-kilometer stretch of the Spitsbergen coastline. In total, an area of about 58 kilometers has been combed during the two days of search.

According to earlier reports, rescuers were flown by a helicopter to the coastline search area on Tuesday morning. Assisted by officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross, they searched for missing crew members or helicopter wreckage that could be washed ashore.

On Monday, several teams of Russian rescuers were dispatched to the crash zone as well, but they also returned to Longyearbyen with no result.

A helicopter of the Conversavia airline, carrying eight people, was en route from the mothballed community of Pyramiden to Barentsburg when contact with the aircraft was lost at 15:04 local time (16:04 Moscow time) on Thursday. There were five crew and three employees of the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute on board the helicopter.

It was in a proper technical condition and underwent maintenance before the flight, Conversavia said. On Sunday, more than 40 Russian rescuers joined the search for the helicopter. It was traced at a depth of 209 meters in the Barents Sea, some two kilometers off Cape Heer.

According to Norwegian authorities, the body of one victim was found on October 30, some 130 meters away from the crashed helicopter.

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