Thank you Bronx, for that quote from New York Times.
In my opinion that Mi-26 was hardly overloaded with 147 passengers on board.
Even if all the passengers were male, then if using JAR standard weight the total weight would be only 13,2 metric tons. Which is well under the Mi-26īs max usable load of 22-26 tons.
Of course they were carrying more pax than allowed, but the aircraft could easily carry the weight and sometimes you have to do what you have to do, expecially in combat situations.