MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax-AVN) - Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov has blamed the crash of an SU-24 bomber in the Lake Baikal region on Thursday on the airplane's crew and officials in charge of flight control.
"The crash of the SU-24 aircraft in the Lake Baikal region was caused by unfavorable weather conditions, as well as errors committed by the crew and the complete absence of any assistance from the flights control group," Mikhailov noted.
He said that the SU-24 was performing a night-time training flight. It had to land amid rather difficult weather conditions, accompanied by dense fog, rain and poor visibility. The bomber deviated from its flight path, lost altitude and crashed into a hill.
Mikhailov said that the flights control group issued the wrong command to switch on the airplane's landing lights as it was preparing to land.
"The command was issued when the plane was five kilometers from the airstrip and the pilot had not yet established accurate contact with the strip," he said.
The Armed Forces flight security service has set up a special commission headed by Colonel Sergei Yakimenko to investigate the accident, he added.
Mikhailov also revealed details of Thursday's MI-8 Hip helicopter crash in Chechnya. According to him, a pair of MI-8s and a part of MI-24 Hind helicopters were assigned the mission to drop a landing party. After the mission was accomplished, the helicopters came under fire. The helicopters were flying along a river. The fire was conducted from both banks.
"Small arms and something bigger were fired," Mikhailov said. The helicopter got damages that did not allow it to continue the flight and had to crash-land on a forest. The crew commander died, but the fight engineer and operator pilot survived the landing.
Mikhailov also mentioned the crash of the MI-8 helicopter that occurred in the Saratov region on Thursday. Causes of the crash are being established, he said.
Earlier it was reported that an MI-8 Hip military helicopter crashed near a gas station in the Saratov region late on Thursday.
The crash occurred in the vicinity of the Peschany Ulyot village 15km north of the Sokol airfield, a spokesman for the Air Force flight security service told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The crew consisting of Major Alexander Kosoyev, the commander, and Lieutenant Ilya Kiselev, a young pilot, was performing a control flight with the landing on a small pad.
"Powerful engine vibration emerged at an altitude of 20m when the helicopter was moving at 140kmph, and the commander decided to make a crash landing," the spokesman said.
While performing the final approach, the helicopter caught a power transmission line support and fell on the ground 300m from it.
All crewmembers are alive, the spokesman said. Gas station facilities are not damaged either, but power is not supplied to the station, because the helicopter caused damages to the power line.