Sakhalin Mil-8 crash (The plot thickens)

[Cyclic Hotline]

Helicopter carrying governor, 16 others disappears off Russia's Pacific coast
August 20, 2003 Posted: 16:08 Moscow time (12:08 GMT)

VLADIVOSTOK - Authorities in the Russian Far East lost contact Wednesday with a helicopter that was carrying a regional governor and 16 other people over the volcanos of the Kamchatka peninsula, emergency officials said.

The Mi-8 helicopter had been flying with three crew members and 14 passengers, including Sakhalin Governor Igor Farkhutdinov, from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Severo-Kurilsk on the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The crew failed to make contact with ground control at the appointed time, and hours later there was still no word. Soon after, darkness fell over the region, complicating search efforts.

Rescuers were focusing their search on a 200-kilometer-long (125-mile-long) swath of the Kamchatka peninsula, said Valery Molokanov, an officer in the emergency ministry's crisis center in Moscow.

Molokanov told Rossiya television that Russian border guards never saw the helicopter cross the Kamchatka shoreline on its way to the islands.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov ordered the military to mobilize forces for the search. Some 100 vessels and 50 aircraft are taking part in exercises this week along the Pacific coast.

"The rescue must be organized first of all in Kamchatka in the area of high volcanos of about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet)," Ivanov told navy commander Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov in a video link to Vladivostok.

Sakhalin's deputy governor, Ivan Malakhov, suggested there could have been more than 14 passengers on board. He said 13 officials, including the governor, and five businessmen had flown with Farkhutdinov to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, but it was unclear how many of them flew on to the Kurils.

Malakhov said the governor was traveling to the islands to check whether their winter fuel supplies and to examine the destruction caused by an Aug. 11 typhoon.

Helicopters are a key form of transport in many hard-to-access parts of the Russian Arctic and Far East. The country's helicopter fleet is aging, and crashes are common.

Alexander Lebed, one of Russia's most prominent politicians, was killed in a helicopter crash in Siberia in April 2002. At the time, Lebed was governor of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk.

[Vfrpilotpb]

Is it me, or have I missed something here?

Why no flurries of RIP's,

If the news is confirmed, then let us be magnanimous in offering our condolence's

[Heliport]

Two reports from Gateway to Russia Wreckage of missing helicopter found
Charred wreckage of the Mi-8 helicopter that disappeared on Wednesday have been found on the Kamchatka Peninsula, NTV television reported quoting Alexander Drozdov, deputy presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District.

It is assumed that the helicopter crashed because of overloading.

There is no information about the killed or injured. Earlier, Sakhalin authorities promised a reward of RUR 1m (about $33,000) to anyone who finds the missing helicopter.

A corresponding decree was signed by Ivan Malakhov, acting Governor of the Sakhalin region, and Lyubov Shubina, Deputy Chairman of the Sakhalin region’s Duma.

The Mi-8 helicopter was flying from the Izluchino settlement to Severo-Kurilsk on the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It took off at 5:40 Moscow time (14:40 local time) on Wednesday but failed to make contact with ground control at the appointed time, one hour later, and did not arrive in Severo-Kurilsk. There were twenty people on board – three crew members and seventeen passengers, including Igor Farkhutdinov, Governor of the Sakhalin region.

The Transport Prosecutor’s Office of the Kamchatka region has opened a criminal case over the disappearance of the helicopter. The criminal case was opened under Article 263 of the Russian Criminal Code (violation of flight safety regulations).

and Emergency Ministry: Helicopter wreckage not found

Reports that the wreckage of the missing Mi-8 helicopter was found are disinformation, sources in the Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Department of the Kamchatka region told RBC.
Earlier, Alexander Drozdov, deputy presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, said that the wreckage of the helicopter had been found on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

It is known that rescuers have landed not far from Kurilskoye Lake, where an oil patch and wreckage were found. However, a full scale search was suspended as night fell on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Mi-8 helicopter was flying from the Izluchino settlement to Severo-Kurilsk on the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It took off at 5:40 Moscow time (14:40 local time) on Wednesday but failed to make contact with ground control at the appointed time, one hour later, and did not arrive in Severo-Kurilsk. There were twenty people on board – three crew members and seventeen passengers, including Igor Farkhutdinov, Governor of the Sakhalin region.

Whichever is correct, things don't look to hopeful for the crew and passengers.

[Thomas coupling]

Sounds suspicious to me:suspect:

[MBJ]

A bit unlikely to be overloading with only 20 pax?

[Heliport]

Latest from Gateway to Russia on-line More aircraft to join search for missing helicopter

The Russian Emergencies Ministry is planning to involve more aircraft and helicopters in the search for the Mi-8 helicopter that went missing on Kamchatka. According to a source in the ministry's Information Department, the search will be intensified as soon as weather conditions and visibility improve on Saturday afternoon.

"We shall engage more aircraft in the search," the source said. "Beginning August 23, it will involve 12 helicopters and 6 planes." In the meantime, it has grown dark and the search has been suspended. "We have a lesser area to examine now that we've scoured two districts out of seven where the helicopter could have landed," the source added.

The search effort on Friday involved 19 helicopter sorties to the searched area. "The suggestion that an oil slick found on the river Ozyornaya may have something to do with the missing helicopter has not been confirmed," said RIA Novosti's source.

[Heliport]

Interesting article in Pravda Any Chances of Missing Helicopters to be Found in Russia?

Unfortunately, search and rescue devices of Russian helicopters and planes are in poor repair

On August 20, another after the catastrophe that claimed the life of Krasnoyarsk Governor General Alexander Lebed tragic accident occurred to the Sakhalin Governor and the Russian aviation. A Mi-8 helicopter with Sakhalin Governor Igor Farhutdinov and other passengers on board was lost on August 20.

It may sound strange in the age when computers and telephones are installed everywhere but Russia's rescue and recovery service is experiencing a deep crisis. To begin with it's necessary to mention that the Mi-8 helicopter with the Sakhalin governor on board followed the route observing the visual flight guidance. In other words, each time it passed some marks it informed the surface stations of it.
Second, the radiolocation area in the Far East and all over Russia guarantees control over low-flying objects only in few regions because the radio-locators operate in the metric, decimetric and centimetric ranges. In other words, they can track objects within direct visibility: the lower and further a helicopter, the less is the distance at which it can be detected.

So, it is not ruled out that the Mi-8 helicopter could not be detected by radars in that area where it was lost. Unfortunately, the helicopter isn't equipped with short-range navigation appliances, an onboard locator for detection of obstacles that would allow the machine to pass them by. The nature conditions of Russia's Far East are such that early in the morning (the helicopter was lost at about 6 a.m. local time) the areas close to the Pacific Ocean coast are wrapped in fog. Mi-8 helicopters are equipped with VHF and short-wave radio stations. While a VHF-range station functions according to the direct visibility principle and the range of its action depends upon the cruising altitude, the short-wave station of the helicopter was to have snapped into action. This fact suggests rather sad thoughts concerning the fate of the helicopter passengers.

It is said that a search and rescue communicator of a Komar type must have been on board the helicopter. If necessary the communicator emits special signals that can be intercepted by planes and helicopters searching for a missing object. The rescue team then uses the signals to find the area where the object is lost. However, it is known for sure that in most cases batteries of such communicators are outdates and operate badly. As for the helicopter that the Sakhalin governor uses, it is not clear whether the search and rescue communicator was in good repair or not. Unfortunately, there are just few Russian helicopters and planes that are equipped with the KOSPAS-SAPSAT device meant for sending distress signals and operate through special satellites. One more problem is that mobile phones do not work in the Far Eastern taiga. So, unfortunately the searches for the Mi-8 helicopter missed on August 20 can last for several days.

[Heliport]

Reuters, Aug 23 VLADIVOSTOK- All people aboard a missing Russian helicopter that carried the governor of the oil-rich Sakhalin Island are believed to be dead, according to a search team that found the wreck on Saturday.

"The helicopter has been found. It is completely destroyed with bodies strewn about. Prosecutors and forensic experts have flown there," a spokesman for the team coordinating the search told Reuters.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted President Vladimir Putin's envoy in the far east, Konstantin Pulikovsky, as saying experts had identified the body of Sakhalin governor Igor Farkhutdinov.


Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov told Russian television the wreck was found by a local airlines helicopter employed in the search some 115 km (70 miles) south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the city on the Kamchatka penisula from which the doomed craft took off.

Irregularities in the flight documents have so far prevented officials saying how many people were on board the doomed helicopter. Estimates range from 13 to 23.

There have been no official reports on what could have caused the crash but Russian media said the craft might have been caught in turbulence over the mountainous area.

The helicopter was on its way to one of the islands in the Kuriles chain in the Pacific when air traffic controllers lost track of it last Wednesday.

A massive rescue effort was deployed but bad weather hampered the search.

[Heliport]

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/mdf343114.jpg

The crash site of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter is seen at Mount Asacha, south west of far eastern city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, August 23, 2003.

Photo by Reuters

[Heliport]

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.

[tecpilot]

@MBJ

it's not difficult to overload a Mi-8. Most of the russian ships carry at least one onboard (inside the cabin) additionally fuel tank (900 liters, also possible to carry 2 of these barrels). 20 passengers and their baggage, necessary survival equipment, urgent spare parts, tools, helicopter covers, grease, hydraulic fluid, short: all what you could find inside a russian helicopter... in 6600 ft is definitively on the upper point. In case of an engine failure and such an a/c weight it seems impossible to me to stay in the air and fly back home.

But ist seems also to me impossible that the crash is an overload problem. As every helicopter pilots knows you need the most power during take off and landing. And with a wheel gear it's easy to lift off and land with forward speed. That's also the recommended procedure in case of an engine failure or other emergencies. 70 miles flight distance means about 600 lbs of consumed fuel (depends from engine types). And it could be a modern type because of the voice recorder.

Could be a Controlled-Into-Terrain crash.

[Time Out]

Pravda report: Helicopter's crash on Kamchatka caused by violation of flying rules in mountainous area

The Mi-8 helicopter crashed on Kamchatka because its crew violated the rules of flying in the mountainous area, said Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday, commenting on the results of the meeting of the state commission for investigating the causes of the crash.

"The crew flew on an impermissibly low height, lower than a safe height, and it did not take a decision to return or to stop the flight when the weather did not ensure the possibility to continue a safe visual flight. As a result, the helicopter clashed with the land," said the minister.

The helicopter crashed on August 20. Twenty people were on its board - seventeen passengers, including Sakhalin governor Igor Farkhutdinov, and three members of the crew. All of them were killed.

Source (http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2003/10/07/50380.html)

I can't locate the actual aviation report. If they are made public, perhaps one of the Russian speaking among us could do a search.