MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. A Mi-28 military helicopter crashed during a training flight in Crimea, with both pilots killed in the crash, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"At 3:42 p.m. (Moscow time) on May 12, 2023, a Mi-28 helicopter crashed during its scheduled training flight in the Dzhankoi district of the Republic of Crimea. The helicopter performed its flight without an ammunition load. There is no destruction on the ground. Both pilots died," the ministry said.

A technical failure is the preliminary cause of the Mi-28 helicopter’s crash in Crimea, it said.

A commission of the Russian Aerospace Forces Main Command is on its way to the crash site to establish all the circumstances of the accident, the press office added.

The Mi-28N (Item 294, Night Hunter, NATO reporting name: Havoc-B) is a Russian attack helicopter designed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant (currently, part of Russian Helicopters Group) in the 1990s. The attack gunship designated to operate in any time of the day or night is a modification of the Soviet Mi-28 strike helicopter engineered in the 1980s and not accepted for service.