Mi-24/Mi-35 Crashes

Russians Search for Helicopter Lost over Chechnya

Six helicopters are engaged in the search for the Mi-24 helicopter that belonged to the North Caucasus regional department of the Russian Federal Border Guard Service, Chechen prosecutor Vsevolod Chernov said. The search for a border troops helicopter which disappeared yesterday was resumed today.

All contact with the Mi-24 helicopter was lost near Khankala airport on the outskirts of Groznyy yesterday , a spokesman for the Federal Border Guard Service press centre told ITAR-TASS.


He noted that the Federal Border Guard Service had no information about what had caused the loss of contact and the helicopter's disappearance.
``For reasons that are not yet clear, the helicopter either landed somewhere unexpectedly or crashed,`` the source said.

Groups of rescuers are currently engaged in the search, the spokesman said.

He recalled that yesterday morning, the crews of two helicopters, a Mi-24 and a Mi-8, had been ordered to fly to the Tuskharoy border post and bring sick borderguards from it to a hospital in Vladikavkaz. But the mission was not accomplished because of bad weather. The helicopters reached Tuskharoy, but poor visibility prevented them from landing.

The crews decided to land elsewhere and the Mi-8 later landed at the airport in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia. The Mi-24 crew decided to reach Khankala.

According to Chernov, the place where the helicopter landed has not yet been found. Representatives of the North Caucasus regional department of the Russian Federal Border Guard Service have left for Khankala...

/ITAR-TASS news agency/

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