ROSTOV-ON-DON. Feb 8 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky has said the main explanation for the Thursday crash of a MI-8 Hip helicopter at the air base in Khankala, Chechnya, is engine failure.
"The investigation is considering this theory as the main one," he told Interfax on Friday.
He quoted witnesses as saying that the helicopter started spinning in the air, "acting irregularly" which evidently indicates an engine failure.
Fridinsky said a criminal case has been opened. Representatives of the military prosecutor together with the prosecutor of Chechnya are taking the first steps to find out the causes of the catastrophe, he said.
Three crewmembers survived the crash while seven passengers were killed.