The Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Sunday that the helicopter crash on Russia's Arctic Yamal Peninsula killed the crew commander while there were no injuries among the other crewmembers or the passengers.
Rosaviatsia reported earlier in the day that a Mil Mi-8 helicopter with three crewmembers and 15 passengers had crashed while approaching a hydrocarbon field on Yamal. It said that the crew commander had been killed and the fate of the other two crewmembers was unknown while the passengers had sustained injuries of various degree of gravity.
"According to specified data, there are no injuries among the passengers and two out of the three crewmembers," a spokesman for Rosaviatsia said, adding that only the crew commander had been killed in the crash.
The Mi-8 helicopter owned by Yamal Airline was delivering geologists from the town of Labytnanga to the Bovanenkovo hydrocarbon field, which Russian energy giant Gazprom is developing.
The helicopter was landing in the conditions of polar night when it crashed. Another helicopter of Yamal Airline has flown to the site of the incident to evacuate people.
The latest incident with a Mi-8 helicopter occurred on November 25 when it crashed in Russia's Omsk region in southwestern Siberia, killing seven passengers and injuring three crew members. The helicopter was engaged in delivering workers to a drilling site. It fell and caught on fire.
MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti)
