18 people died.
MOSCOW, August 4.
/TASS/. A Mi-8 helicopter has crashed in the north of Krasnoyarsk region, East
Siberia, killing 18 people aboard, a source at the emergency services told
TASS.
"There were
three crewmembers and 15 passenger abroad the Mi-8 that belonged to Utair
airline," he said. "All of them died."
A well-informed
official in the law enforcement agencies told TASS the helicopter had taken off
from the town of Igarka, located on the River Yenisei to the north of the
Arctic Circle.
"It crashed 2 km
to the south of the airport, immediately after takeoff," he said.
Officials at the
Krasnoyarsk regional branch of the federal Ministry for Emergency Situations
and Civil Defense said the helicopter crash-landed 10:20 Siberian time [06:20
Moscow Standard Time, 03:20 UTC].
Law enforcers also
said the helicopter crashed because of midair collision with a cargo carried by
another helicopter.
"It crashed
immediately after takeoff because of collision with the cargo carried by
another helicopter that was also airborne at the moment," a police source
said.
In the meantime,
other law enforcers said there was priority version explaining for the cause of
the accident so far, with all the possible versions under consideration. Their
list included a crew error and equipment failure.
A spokesman for an
emergency team set up to eliminate the aftermaths of the accident told TASS two
flight recorders had been found at the site of the crash.
"Both flight
recorders have been found," he said. "We’ll hand them to the experts
of the Interstate Aviation Committee."
Operatives and rescue
teams were working at the site of the crash at the time this report went on
wire.
Source: ITAR-TASS 04-08-2018
