MOSCOW: A Mi-8 helicopter with 22 people aboard, most of them tourists, has gone missing in Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula in the far east, regional authorities said Saturday.
The helicopter, carrying 19 passengers and three crew members, lost communication shortly after taking off and has not been located as of the latest reports.
Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov confirmed in a video posted on Telegram that contact was lost with the helicopter around 16:15 local time (04:15 GMT). The aircraft had just taken off from a pickup point near the Vachkazhets ancient volcano, an area renowned for its rugged landscapes and active volcanoes.
According to regional authorities, the search efforts have been ongoing through the night, focusing on a river valley where the helicopter was scheduled to fly. Rescue teams, including helicopters, are scouring the area, but poor visibility due to local weather conditions is hampering their efforts.
The Mi-8 helicopter, a Soviet-designed model widely used for transportation across Russia, disappeared from radar almost immediately after its departure. Emergency services reported that the crew did not issue any distress signals before losing contact, and no immediate issues were reported with the aircraft.
The local weather service said that visibility in the area around the time of the disappearance was poor, which could have contributed to the difficulty in locating the missing helicopter.
Accidents involving aircraft are not uncommon in Russia’s far eastern regions, where vast, sparsely populated areas and severe weather conditions pose significant challenges. In August 2021, a Mi-8 helicopter with 16 people, including 13 tourists, crashed into a lake in Kamchatka, killing eight due to poor visibility.
Earlier in July 2021, a plane crash during landing on the peninsula resulted in the deaths of all 28 people on board, including 22 passengers and 6 crew members.
