Wreckage of missing helicopter in far east Russia located, 17 bodies found

Rescuers have located a helicopter that went missing in Russia’s far east with 22 people on board, officials said.

Russia’s emergencies ministry said on Sunday the bodies of 17 people have been found and that rescuers were continuing to search for the remaining occupants.

All those on board are presumed to have died, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said, citing the ministry, adding that the helicopter had likely crashed due to poor visibility in bad weather conditions.

“The wreckage of the previously missing helicopter was discovered from the air. It is located at an altitude of 900 metres near the place where it was last contacted,” the emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram.

The Mi-8 helicopter took off close to the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka region on Saturday but did not arrive at its destination as scheduled, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency earlier said in a statement.

It said it believed that 19 passengers and three crew members were on board.

The Mi-8 is a two-engine helicopter designed in the 1960s. It is widely used in Russia, where crashes have been frequent, as well as in neighbouring countries and many other nations.