Moscow [Russia], September 2: A helicopter with 22 people on board crashed in Russia's Far East, according to the country's Emergencies Ministry. All individuals on the helicopter were reported dead, as confirmed by Russian state media TASS.
By Sunday evening, the ministry had reported that 17 bodies had been recovered.
The helicopter, which was carrying 19 passengers and three crew members, had departed near the Vachkazhets volcano on Saturday and was en route to the village of Nikolaevka when it crashed, said Vladimir Solodov, the governor of the Kamchatka region, via Telegram.
Solodov noted that the helicopter had taken off near the Vachkazhets volcano, a popular tourist site in the remote Kamchatka Peninsula, and was heading towards Nikolaevka.
On Sunday, Solodov updated that the wreckage of the Mi-8 helicopter had been located, and efforts were underway to deploy specialists to the site as quickly as possible.
The wreckage was discovered at an altitude of 900 meters (nearly 3,000 feet) not far from the last known location of the helicopter's crew, according to Russia’s ministry of emergencies on Telegram.
The ministry reported finding 17 bodies at the crash site and indicated that no survivors were anticipated based on the condition of the wreckage.
A photo and video shared on Telegram showed pieces of the helicopter scattered on the side of a steep hill in a mountainous area.
The Kamchatka Department of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring noted that the region's rapidly changing, harsh, and sub-Arctic weather conditions, including fog, drizzle, and poor visibility, were present on Saturday.
In 2021, another Mi-8 helicopter crashed into a deep volcanic crater lake in Kamchatka, resulting in eight fatalities.
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