MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) - The pilots of the Russian Mi-8 helicopter that crashed in the Congo may have lost control over the vehicle in bad weather conditions, a source in technical supervision in Moscow told Interfax on Monday.
"One of the main theories under consideration is a mistake in piloting in bad weather conditions. However, it may have been combined with technical faults in the helicopter cabin as an additional accident factor," the source said.
The source added that the crew did not send distress signals before the crash.
Meanwhile, rescuers have still not succeeded in reaching the crash area on the ground. "The flight recorders will help to reconstruct the exact picture but so far rescuers have not reached it on the ground and it is impossible to discern them from the air," the source said.
Earlier reports said that the Mi-8 helicopter of UTair airlines took off for a business flight between two sites in the Congo on Saturday, March 9. However, contact with it was lost 10 kilometers away from the landing site. Bad weather conditions were registered in the area of the reported disappearance of the helicopter.
Later fragments of the helicopter were discovered in the jungle. Nothing was said about what happened to the crew.
On Sunday night, a UN military representative confirmed the death of four Russians - crew members of the crashed helicopter.