GROZNY. Feb 7 (Interfax-AVN) - The crash of the MI-8 Hip helicopter in Chechnya was caused by technical failure or the crew's mistake, sources in the commission investigating the crash told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
"There are many versions of the catastrophe, and all of them will be considered, but the prime leads are technical failure and crew's mistake," one of the sources said.
"The crew of the MI-24 Hind helicopter that took off several minutes after the MI-8 saw the latter falling into a spin and hitting the ground," the sources said.
According to him, the crash killed seven passengers and crew commander Major Yuri Pukhnarevich. "Navigator Plakhteyev and flight technician Lebedev have been taken to hospital with grave injuries," he said.
This is not the first crash of a federal helicopter in Chechnya in 2002.
An MI-8 crashed eight kilometers away from Shelkovskaya on January 27. The crash killed all 14 people on board. An MI-24 Hind helicopter of the Federal Border Guard Service went missing on February 3. It is believed to have crashed, too.
The MI-8 of the Air Force crashed when taking off from the Khankala airfield at 2:27 p.m. Moscow time (1127 GMT) on Thursday. It fell from the altitude of 50m and exploded the moment it hit the ground.
A commission led by Air Force Commander Vladimir Mikhailov is at the crash site. Representatives of the Defense Ministry's flight safety service, the Air Force, and specialists from the 13th research institute that investigates air accidents will go there from Moscow in the evening.