KHANKALA. Aug 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The bodies of 23 victims have been discovered in the crash area of an MI-26 Halo helicopter near Grozny, a spokesman for the headquarters of the federal force in the North Caucasus told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"The search for the other victims continues. So far they are considered missing. There are 27 injured passengers and five crewmembers at the military hospital of Khankala. Doctors describe the condition of 17 passengers as grave," the spokesman said.
The information about the number of people aboard remains contradictory. There were between 142 and 146 of them - passengers and crew.
At 8:00 a.m. Moscow time (0400 GMT) on Tuesday, four experts from the 124th laboratory of the Defense Ministry and the laboratory of the North Caucasus military district flew to the area where the helicopter crashed on Monday. The bodies of many victims are badly burned and their identification will take time, the source said.
An operational group led by Major General Alexander Serov has been set up at the headquarters of the North Caucasus military district. The district headquarters are holding a conference involving representatives of different departments to organize the sending of bodies and funerals of the dead, the meeting and accommodation of relatives of the victims at Zvezda military hotel. A team of psychologists has been invited to work with them.