BBC reports Heli down.

[gofer]

BBC just reported a Heli crash in Tetschina with 112 on board !

Will research and bring more as and when I can find.

[ive348]

a heli with 112 pax?

[gofer]

Hey I'm just posting a press rumour at this moment. Had my doubts also but on the Latest News ticker at:
BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) that is what is scrolling with the comment "more soon"

Don't have an account at interfax - can anybody check there - BBC quoted them as their source...

[No comment]

Could be that just 13 are injured. It only says the helicopter is "capable" of carrying up-to 112. fingers crossed
NC

[gofer]

ITAR TASS (http://www.itar-tass.com/address.asp)

Moscow Time

19 Aug 18:17 .Several injured in helicopter emergency landing in Grozny.

19 Aug 18:38 .Several injured in helicopter emergency landing in (adds).

19 Aug 18:47 .At least 85 die in helicopter emergency landing in Grozny.

Thats all for now without a login and password. RIP

[Lefthanddown]

Reports that it is a Mi26 and was shot down.

[jet_noseover]

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted military officials as saying that at least 85 soldiers had died when their giant transport helicopter crash landed in Russia's rebel Chechnya province on Monday.
A source in the military headquarters in Khankala told Itar-Tass that two soldiers had said the helicopter had been fired upon from the ground

The Mi-26, one of the largest production helicopters in the world, crashed near the main Khankala military base outside the regional capital Grozny.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-19-074155.asp?reg=EUROPE



http://www.russiajournal.com/news/rj_news.shtml?nd=2428

MOSCOW - A Russian military transport helicopter crash-landed in Chechnya on Monday, injuring at least 25 servicemen, the Russian military headquarters in Chechnya said.
The Mi-26 helicopter went down near the military headquarters at Khankala, near the Chechen capital Grozny. There were no deaths, the headquarters said.

However, the Interfax news agency, citing an unnamed source in the military headquarters, reported that the aircraft was shot down by rebels and that according to preliminary information, about 10 soldiers were killed.

The head of the Defense Ministry press office, Nikolai Deryabin, told ORT state television that the pilot had requested permission to perform an emergency landing because an engine was on fire.

He said that 13 servicemen were hospitalized, but offered no other details of casualties.

The military headquarters later said that there were at least 25 injured, but that fire and smoke from the crash hampered efforts to determine the full number of casualties.

The crash came amid a spate of rebel actions against federal forces, including attacks late last week in southwestern Chechnya that killed nine servicemen and five civilians. Some analysts surmised that rebels had intensified their actions to underline to the Russian government that it should enter peace negotiations. A Chechen rebel representative met last week in Geneva with Ivan Rybkin, a former head of Russia's Security Council, to talk about restarting talks that have been stalled since last year.

The government maintains that the current war in Chechnya, launched in fall 1999, is all but over, with just isolated groups of rebels holding out. However, rebels unleash daily attacks that sap the military's manpower and morale.

Most of the attacks are small-scale, targeting soldiers and Chechen police and civilian officials who cooperate with them. But the rebels have made some high-profile hits against top officers.

In September 2001, two generals and 11 other Russian servicemen died when their helicopter was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile shortly after takeoff from Grozny. Another helicopter, an Mi-8 carrying two top Interior Ministry officials and 12 other people, crashed in Chechnya in January. The Kremlin said that crash was due to an accident, but an official with the Moscow-appointed civilian administration for Chechnya said that investigators had found some fragments of the helicopter that suggested it, too, was hit by a shoulder-fired missile.

Interfax, citing Deryabin, said 112 servicemen and five crew members were aboard the helicopter that went down Monday. The military headquarters in Chechnya said the wreckage was still on fire more than an hour after the crash, and that survivors were being evacuated

[gofer]

Mil-26 Pictures (http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraftsearch=Mil%20Mi-26T&distinct_entry=true)

Biggest operational Helicopter of the World Mil Mi-26 Halo

History:
First flight on December 14, 1977, the replacement of the Mi-6 Hook , is the biggest operational Helicopter of the World. Can carry up to 90 troops, a similar capacity of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules and it was the first to operate successfully with an 8 blades main rotor .

Variants include:
Mi-26MS : Medevac version
Mi-26TM : Flying crane
Mi-26TZ : Fuel tanker

Tech data:
Rotor diameter: 32 m
Disc Area: 804 m2
Length: 40 m
Height: 8.15 m
Weight: 28200 kg - Max: 56000
Engine: 2 Ioatarev D-136 of
11400 hp each
Speed: Max: 295 km/h
Range: 800 km
Service Ceiling: 4600 m

Source (http://iron-eagles.tripod.com/eb_ac_files/mil_helicopters.htm)

Latest rumours The Russia Journal (http://www.russiajournal.com/news/index.shtml?nd=14637#n14637)

[Draco]

Now that was really unlucky.... latest reports suggest that the heli came down in a minefield and some of the survivors of the crash were killed by mines while exiting the wreckage.

Dreadful.:(

[Alpha Leader]

Great reporting - you got a true head start on this one. Pity it's such dreadful news.

[ppheli]

Reports from the Moscow Times this morning are quoting 33 survivors and 114 killed. Yes, 147 people onboard

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/08/21/001.html

[Draco]

Quote ppheli

"Reports from the Moscow Times this morning are quoting 33 survivors and 114 killed. Yes, 147 people onboard "

and a maximum load of 80ish people.

The Russian representative on the radio yesterday discounted that as irrelevant, as the heli was coming to the end of its flight and would have got back to its mgtw by burning fuel during the flight.

[Alpha Leader]

The place is, after all, a war zone, so you would expect some latitude in procedures.

[Draco]

War zone it might be, but 147 people instead of 80?

It isn't surprising that it didn't fly well after losing an engine.

[MightyGem]

If the need arises. I can't remember the exact numbers but a Chinook normally carries about 40(1 per seat). During the Falklands an RAF Chinook (BN I think) carried over 80 on one sortie.

Mind you they were Gurkas, so probably didn't weigh that much.:D

[Heliport]

The military helicopter that crashed in Chechnya on Aug. 19 was shot down by an air-to-surface missile, probably fired from an Igla system, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday.

Ivanov, however, didn't link the tragedy with Chechen rebels, who on its website claimed responsibility for the attack.

The missile hit the right engine, Ivanov said. "A fire broke out. The entire hydraulic control system failed, the back door could not open, and burning fuel flooded inside the helicopter," he said.

The minister blamed Defense Ministry personnel who had prepared the flight, saying they had "committed the most severe violations of orders and regulations." He accused the officers of negligence and irresponsibility.

"Investigation will determine the extent of their guilt and each of them will be disciplined and face criminal justice," Interfax quoted him as saying.

The Mi-26 military transport helicopter went down in a minefield outside the Khankala military headquarters, near the regional capital Grozny on Aug. 19, killing 118 people including an army nurse and her child.

Twenty-nine others aboard, including five crewmembers, were injured and some still remain in serious condition.

By 9:00 Moscow summer time (0500 GMT) Friday, workers at the Defense Ministry's laboratory in Rostov had identified 69 bodies, 50 of which had been sent to their families for burial, Ivanov said.