Posted on 07/10/2002 11:09:09 PM PDT by HAL9000
MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) - Planes of the Emergency Situations and Defense ministries are searching for the Mi-6 helicopter that disappeared after landing on Dixon Island on Wednesday afternoon.The Emergency Situations Ministry's An-74 with rescuers aboard departed from Krasnoyarsk at 7 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday and the Defense Ministry's An-26 carrying rescuers took off simultaneously from Norilsk.
A helicopter of the Emergency Situations Ministry will follow the route of the disappeared Mi-6 on Dixon Island.
The Mi-6 was flying from Norilsk to Cape Chelyuskin with stopovers on Dixon Island and the Eclipse spot.
The Mi-6 with registration number 21072 of the Valek airline departed from Norilsk at 1 p.m. Moscow time on Wednesday and landed on Dixon Island.
The last communication session with the helicopter took place at 2:31p.m. Moscow time on Wednesday. It did not arrive at the Eclipse spot as scheduled at 3 p.m. Moscow time.
The helicopter reportedly carried 8 crewmembers, 13 passengers, probably geologists, and three tonnes of cargo.
PLANES WITH RESCUERS ON BOARD ARE SEARCHING FOR THE HELICOPTER THAT DISAPPEARED ON THE TAIMYR PENINSULA
KRASNOYARSK, July 11, 2002. /RIA Novosti correspondent Boris Ivanov/-- The cargo An-74 plane flew from Krasnoyarsk airport on Tuesday morning to search for the helicopter Mi-6 which had disappeared on the Taimyr peninsula in Eastern Siberia beyond the Polar Circle.
The plane carries fourteen rescuers of the Emergencies Ministry and the equipment, including space communication apparatus, necessary for searches in the Arctic.
Another group of rescuers on board the An-26 military plane has flown from Norilsk.
As the Siberian regional centre of the Emergencies Ministry reported, no contact has so far been established with the missing helicopter.
On Wednesday morning, the Mi-26 with eight crewmen, thirteen passengers and three tons of cargo left Valek airport, Norilsk, but in two hours and a half it did not land in the place of its destination - the township of Eklips on the Arctic shore. The causes of the incident are not yet known.
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