A helicopter with 16 people on board, most of them tourists, has crashed in the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east the local government said, with seven passengers unaccounted for.
The Mi-8 helicopter came down in Lake Kuril in the Kronotsky nature reserve, it said in a statement on Thursday.
According to AP news agency, the helicopter is reportedly lying at a depth of about 100 meters (328 feet) in Lake Kuril, which is up to 316 meters (1,037-feet) deep with an area of 77 square kilometers (30 square miles).
Preliminary information said, “there were three crew members and 13 passengers on board”.
Forty rescuers and divers were dispatched to the scene. Kamchatka is more than 6,000km (3,728 miles) east of Moscow.
According to a local health ministry source, nine people were rescued.
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Ocho personas sobreviven en un aterrizaje forzoso de un helicóptero en el Lejano Oriente ruso
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Eight people are believed to have been killed after a Mi-8 helicopter crash-landed into a lake in the national reserve on the south of Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s Far East. A total of 16 people were on board the aircraft.
ReplyDeleteThe helicopter, operated by Vityaz-Aero company, was carrying 13 tourists, including a child, and three crew members as it fell into Kuril Lake early on Thursday.
Eight people died in the crash, health officials told Interfax news agency, adding that the bodies are likely to be found at the bottom of the lake. Another eight people were rescued, with their condition estimated as non-life-threatening, the source said. The injured victims are being transported to various hospitals.