MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Emergencies Ministry Aviation made over 1,500 flights to natural disaster and emergency areas in 2003, acting chief of the aviation Alexander Fomin said on Wednesday.
"The Emergencies Ministry aviation made over 11,200 flights in 2003, including over 1,500 flights to natural disaster and emergency areas," Fomin told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The ministry's planes and helicopters airlifted about 17,000 passengers and over 17,000t of cargo last year, he said. In addition, aviation was widely used to put off large forest fires, dropping about 5,000t of water on fire epicenters.
"MI-8 Hind and KA-32 Helix helicopters were on duty at the Emergencies Ministry aviation's permanent base airfields (Ramenskoye, Dobrynskoye, Cheremshanka, Yemelyanovo and Khabarovsk-Tsentralny) in order to respond timely to new emergency situations," Fomin said.
According to him, the ministry's pilots spent a total of 8,108 hours in the air in 2003. Crew commanders of MI-8 and MI-26 Halo helicopters had an average of 65 flight hours per person last year, while commanders of AN-74 Coaler planes had an average of 125 flight hours, and young pilots who graduated from higher educational establishments in 2003 had 43 hours.