A helicopter with tourists crashed in Kamchatka: the causes of the disaster and the survivors

Kremlin relations

On August 12, in Kamchatka, an Mi-8 with 13 tourists and 3 crew members crashed in the Kuril Lake area of the Kronotsky Reserve. 

The helicopter flew from the village of Nikolaevka to the Khodutka volcano.

According to law enforcement agencies, the helicopter instantly landed on the water and went to the bottom. Employees of the reserve were quickly sent to the scene of the incident, who were waiting for tourists who flew on this helicopter. Two planes of the Center for Disaster Medicine and a helicopter of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia also flew there.

RIA Novosti / Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation

A total of 8 people, including two crew members and Russian 24 journalist Nikolai Korzhenevsky, escaped: they had to surface from a depth of 8-9 meters, at a water temperature of 5 degrees. The remaining 8 people, including the commander of the aircraft, are still missing.

On August 14, several bodies were found near the helicopter, which was located at a depth of about 110m. Soon, the governor Vladimir Solodov reported that the body of the Mi-8 pilot was identified among the bodies of the dead. 60 people and 10 pieces of equipment from the Ministry of Emergency Situations were involved in the work, then an operational headquarters was organized, which was headed by the governor himself.

The main reasons for the incident are engine failure and pilot error, and the pilot error is the main one. There was a thick fog in the area where the tragedy occurred. 

“Kronotsky State Reserve”

This is the second plane crash in Kamchatka: on July 6, 2021, an AN-26 passenger plane crashed near the village of Palana, as a result of which 28 people were killed. 

TheKremlin has covered this event earlier.