Associated Press report in the Russia Journal
Helicopter's crash followed official passenger's request to change course
MOSCOW
- A helicopter that crashed last week in the Russian Far East, killing all 20 people on board including a regional governor, slammed into ground after a dangerous change of course ordered by an official passenger, according to an in interview published Friday.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the preliminary investigation had revealed that the crew of the Mi-8 helicopter had deviated from the set course right after takeoff and continuously lied to ground controllers about its position.
"One of those who ordered the flight wanted to show local beautiful vistas to the governor," Shoigu said in an interview published Friday in the daily Izvestia. He didn't name the official.
Sakhalin Gov. Igor Farkhutdinov and many of his administration's senior officials were killed in the crash Aug. 20 which occurred when the helicopter's crew made a risky maneuver to avoid crashing on a dangerously low flight in low, thick clouds on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Shoigu said that the cockpit conversation recorders found at the crash site contained an argument between the nervous crew on whether to report their real location. "May be we should tell them where we are flying," he quoted one pilot as saying. Another responded negatively.
The crash that killed Farkhutdinov closely resembled another helicopter crash that killed Krasnoyarsk region Gov. Alexander Lebed, one of the top Russian politicians, in April 2002. The pilots who survived the crash and went on trial this week said that they descended to a dangerously low altitude in thick fog on orders from Lebed, who wanted to inspect a local highway. The helicopter hit power lines and slammed into ground.
Shoigu called for tightening punishment for pilots who disobey flight instructions and passengers who intervene with the crew's actions. "These instructions are written by blood and they must be observed," he said.
Helicopters are a major form of transport in many remote parts of the Russian Arctic and Far East.