MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The search for the SU-24 Fencer frontline bomber and its crew has been futile in the northwestern Russian Pskov region, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, chief of the Air Force press service, said on Friday morning.
The search operation was in progress all night long, Drobyshevsky told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Four search parties of the Defense Ministry comprising 72 people and 10 pieces of hardware and six parties of the Emergencies Ministry comprising 58 people and six pieces of hardware joined the operation on Friday. MI-8 Hip helicopters of the search and rescue service took off at 8:00 a.m. Moscow time (0500 GMT).
The search is obstructed by thick snow that fell the day before, Drobyshevsky said.
Lieutenant General Gennady Torbov, commander of the 6th air force and air defense army, supervises the operation.