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Mi-28N helicopter crashes at Dubrovichi testing range in Ryazan Region

A helicopter of the Berkut aerobatic group suddenly rolled to one side while performing an aerobatic element and started to fall
Mi-28N attack helicopter ITAR-TASS/Valery Matytsin
Mi-28N attack helicopter
© ITAR-TASS/Valery Matytsin

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. A Mil Mi-28N helicopter has crashed at the Dubrovichi testing range in the Ryazan Region in central Russia, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene on Sunday.

A helicopter of the Berkut aerobatic group suddenly rolled to one side while performing an aerobatic element and started to fall.

As it hit the ground, the helicopter caught on fire. No information is available yet on the helicopter’s two pilots.

The airfield’s services were urgently summoned to the helicopter crash site to extinguish the fire. Medical brigades and fire fighters are working at the scene of the accident.

Eye-witnesses say the helicopter’s tail rotor failed. As it was performing an aerobatic element, the helicopter started to rotate around its axis and descend. As a result, the helicopter fell onto its belly.

Eye-witnesses say one of the pilots has died. Russian Air Force Commander Sergei Kobylash has promptly arrived at the scene. Air Force Commander-in-Chief Viktor Bondarev is watching the developments from the flight control center.