Mi-8 helicopter goes missing in Russian Far East

Moscow: A Mi-8 helicopter of a private airline disappeared during a flight from the town of Okhotsk to Magadan, Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency reported on Monday citing information from emergency services.

“At the appointed time, during a flight from the settlement of Okhotsk to the city of Magadan, the Mi-8 helicopter of the Vzlet airline failed to respond to communication,” the agency quoted its source as saying.

According to the available details, another Mi-8 helicopter took off from Okhotsk to search for the missing helicopter and an An-26 aircraft from Magadan is also involved in the search operation.

There are three crew members and two technicians on board the missing Mi-8 helicopter, Tass reported after getting details from the emergency services.

“Preliminary, there are five people on board the missing Mi-8 helicopter – three crew members and two technicians, they were flying to their destination after completing repair work,” it said.

The aviation wing of Russian Emergencies Ministry’s has also launched an operation in the Far East region where the Mi-8 helicopter went missing.

Last month, a Mi-8 helicopter flying to Smolensk Region made an emergency landing due to malfunctions near the village of Shchetinino in Rzhevsky District of Tver Region.

“The [Mi-8 helicopter] made a forced landing on a platform picked up from the air. The crew is safe, the aircraft is safe,” the Russian news agency quoted an interlocutor from Tver Air Traffic Services Centre as saying.

The Mi-8 helicopter was flying from Zmeevo airport near Tver towards Smolensk to inspect a gas pipeline. It made an emergency landing near the village of Shchetinino in the Rzhevsky district.

In another incident in June, an An-2 plane, whose emergency radio beacon went off, went missing in Yakutia but was found later with no reported casualties.

In March, two people had died and another two injured when a Mi-8 helicopter crashed in Russia’s Magadan region.

The Mi-8 helicopter was transporting 20 workers from one of the mines in the Magadan region on March 18.

The incident occurred while the helicopter made a hard landing 75 km from Evensk, a city situated in Magadan Oblast in Russia’s Far East.

-IANS