MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Flight recorders of the MI-8 Hip helicopter that crashed over Kamchatka Peninsula on August 20 have been delivered to the Interstate Aviation Committee, Moscow, for decoding.
"Both recorders are in a good state, the records are very good. We will hopefully get the full pattern of the flight, crew and land services performance very soon to find out the true cause of the crash," Tatiana Anodina, deputy chairman of the committee, told Interfax-Military News Agency Tuesday.
According to preliminary information, this is another human- caused crash.
"The main cause is deviation from the approved route," Sergei Shoigu, emergencies minister and chairman of the commission, said. He returned to Moscow from the Far East on Tuesday.
To date the flight recorders have helped to establish that the crew had deviated about 40km to the west from the established route and allowed dangerous ground approach.
The Emergencies Ministry is delivering the debris to the airport of Yelizovo for the technical wing of the commission, which will stay there to investigate.
The bodies of all the 20 victims, including Sakhalin region Governor Igor Faikhutdinov, have been identified. They will be buried on Wednesday in the cities of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Severo-Kurilsk.