MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. The bodies of a passenger and a pilot of the Mi-2 commercial helicopter that went missing in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula have been found at the crash site, the Far Eastern investigative department on transport told TASS on Sunday.

A criminal case was launched into the violation of safety rules during the flight. "According to preliminary information, two people have died," a spokesperson for the department said.

The investigators are heading to the scene.

Contact with the Mi-2 helicopter was lost at 5.00 p.m. on May 8. The helicopter, en route from Elizovo airport to a landing field near the Ostrovnaya River, was carrying a pilot and a passenger. The rescue operation, which involved three helicopters, was suspended at night. On Sunday afternoon the burnt debris of the helicopter was found in the forest in the village of Chapayevka.