A helicopter with tourists crashed in Kamchatka: 8 dead, 8 survivors

The aircraft, heading from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Kuril Lake, collapsed into the water on the territory of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in heavy fog.

“On board the helicopter, which belonged to the Vityaz-Aero company, there were 13 tourists, including a child, and three crew members,” Novaya Gazeta reports.

According to Interfax , eight people were killed in the crash.

Regional authorities said there were no threats to the lives of the eight people rescued from the crash. The bodies of eight more victims, apparently, are at the bottom of the Kuril Lake.

Immediately after the crash, the wreckage of the helicopter went under water. Six passengers and two crew members were able to swim out of the lake. According to preliminary data, the co-pilot and flight mechanic managed to escape.

Doctors believe that those who could not independently rise to the surface of the water died: the water in the lake is very cold, its temperature is about 5-6 degrees. A person cannot be in such conditions for a long time.

On the fact of the helicopter crash, a criminal case was initiated under the article on violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport (part 3 of article 263 of the Criminal Code).

Experts cite poor weather conditions, engine failure and piloting errors as possible causes of the crash.

Novaya Gazeta notes that the owner of the deceased helicopter was the Vityaz-Aero company, owned by the richest deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Kamchatka Territory from United Russia, billionaire Igor Redkin.

A few days earlier, the deputy, one of the twenty richest officials according to Forbes, confessed to the murder of a man. By a court decision, the deputy was placed under house arrest.