MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. Rescuers have found fragments of a commercial Robinson helicopter in the Kamchatka Territory, the region’s governor Vladimir Solodiv said on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
"Rescuers in Kamchatka have found the Robinson helicopter, missing since yesterday, burned 13 kilometers south of the Uzon caldera. The chopper with two passengers on board and a pilot was on a private flight, and the group was not registered as tourists," he wrote.
The fate of the passengers and the pilot is unknown yet. According to Solodov, the weather was unfavorable for flights at the scene on Saturday, with low clouds.
According to preliminary reports, the commercial helicopter with three people on board departed to Kamchatka’s famous Valley of Geysers on Saturday noon and failed to contact the ground services on time. A criminal investigation into the incident was launched. An aviation industry source told TASS the rotorcraft was piloted by Russian biathlete Igor Malinovsky.