MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax-AVN) - According to preliminary data, Thursday's MI-8 Hip helicopter crash near the Russian town of Syzran was caused by a technical failure, a source in the commission investigating reasons of the crash told Interfax- Military News Agency.
"Aging aircraft equipment is apparently to blame," the source said.
Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, press service chief of the Russian Air Force, earlier told Interfax-AVN that an MI-8 crashed at the Syzran Air Force Institute at 4:17 p.m. Moscow time (1217 GMT) on Thursday.
"Communication with the helicopter was lost at 4:10 p.m. Moscow time (1210 GMT). Thirteen minutes into the flight, at an altitude of about 800m, the helicopter fell into uncontrolled spinning and started losing altitude dramatically. The aircraft fell near the locality of Pesochnoye eight kilometers from the airfield and caught fire when it hit the ground," Drobyshevsky said.
The crew consisting of the regiment's flight instructor Yuri Neverov, Senior Ensign Igor Ivanov and fourth-year cadet Sergei Kiryushin took off from the Bezenchuk airfield 50km southeast of Syzran for a planned training flight at 4:04 p.m. Moscow time (1204 GMT).