MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Vladimir Skurikhin, the senior pilot of Russia's MI-26 Halo helicopter, has blamed an error committed by Sudan's special services for his helicopter's seizure.
"The country is living in a complex military and political situation. The military exercises excessive vigilance and an atmosphere of suspicion is everywhere. That is why, some special services suspected our crew of certain activities," Skurikhin told Interfax on Thursday.
At the same time, the pilot denies some Sudanese allegations that the helicopters had made numerous landings in areas controlled by insurgents. "If you are familiar with the simplest arithmetics and calculate the distance we flew from Khartoum to El Fasher and divide this distance by three hours and forty minutes - the duration of our flight - you will see that we had to fly at supersonic speed," he noted.
The pilot said that the crew had received relatively good treatment from the Sudanese authorities. "Their treatment was quite polite, but still we once found ourselves at gunpoint," he noted.
He said that the arrest did not hurt the crewmembers' health.
Skurikhin expressed hope that "the Sudanese government and our Foreign Ministry will clear up the situation."
The Vertical-T company which owns the helicopter told Interfax that apart from Skurikhin, the crew included pilots Vasily Shiryanov, Sergei Korablyov, Vladimir Gladysh, Ilya Izbulatov, Vertikal-T manager Maxim Gilvanov and technical experts Sergei Algin and Viktor Morev.
They returned from Sudan on Thursday.