Sad NEWS! Nineteen people die in helicopter crash in northern Russia

Sad NEWS! Nineteen people die in helicopter crash in northern Russia

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Nineteen people are killed after a chopper taking oil workers crashed in northern Russia.

The nation’s aviation bureau said 16 of the 19 passengers and all three crew members died when the aircraft crashed on Friday afternoon. The three survivors were taken to hospital.

The Mi8 helicopter was going from Vankor to Staryi Urengoi in the Yamalo-Nenets region when it came down about 28 miles (45km) north east of its destination.

It took seven hours to rescuers to reach the crash site amid fog and poor visibility. A regional government official, Colonel Dmitry Alexandrov, said the helicopter “fell on its right side, and the casualties could not get ” out.

The governor of Yamalo-Nenets, Dmitry Kobylkin, announced a day of mourning with flags lowered and amusement events cancelled, calling the mishap a source of “great grief for each of us”.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, expressed his condolences to the relatives and friends of people who died, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The aircraft, owned by the Siberian Skol aviation firm, was carrying workers from a subcontractor of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, the Tass news agency reported.

Russia’s investigative committee said the crash could have been caused by a failure to comply with challenging climate conditions, mechanical problems or flight security regulations. The agency has opened a criminal investigation.

They have spent about 100m hours in the air and have been sold to over 100 countries. Yet, there have been several crashes involving the helicopters n.

In a remote area of eastern Siberia, a Mi 8 carrying 25 passengers crashed in July 2013, killing 21 people.

In June 2014, 16 people died after a Mi 8 with 18 people plunged near Murmansk, in northern Russia.

And people died when an Mi-8 crashed in western Siberia near Igarka, while another 10 were injured.