Translated material
Low level flight
Animal advocates have joined the investigation into the helicopter crash in Altai
The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) yesterday announced the first results of the investigation into the crash of the Mi-171 helicopter, which crashed in the Altai mountains last week. The accident killed seven people, including several high-ranking officials from Moscow. Initially, information appeared that the cause of the helicopter crash could have been an engine failure. But based on the results of preliminary decoding of the “black boxes,” the MAK stated that everything was in order with the engines. Yesterday, animal rights activists also joined the investigation into the incident. They prepared an appeal to law enforcement agencies with a request to conduct an investigation into the legality of the hunt, which was conducted by the officials who were on the crashed helicopter.The Mi-171 helicopter, flying along the route Biysk-Chemal-Kosh-Agach, disappeared on January 9, before reaching its destination. On January 11, a wrecked car was discovered in the Altai Republic on the slope of Mount Chernaya in a remote place near the border with Mongolia. There were 11 people on board the helicopter - three crew members and eight passengers, among whom were several high-ranking officials from Moscow and the administration of the Altai Republic. As a result of the accident, seven, including the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the State Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, were killed. Four managed to survive. Three of them - Anatoly Bannykh, Nikolai Kapranov and Boris Belinsky - still remain in the First City Hospital of Barnaul. Doctors say their condition is “severe but stable.” Co-pilot Maxim Kolbin was discharged from the Kosh-Agacha village hospital the day before.
Rescuers could have found the helicopter much faster, but, according to the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, the search was delayed due to a non-functional system of radio beacons, which were supposed to inform dispatchers about the location of the aircraft in the event of an emergency. However, as it now turned out, the beacon system was absolutely in working order. According to the director of the Research Institute of Space Instrumentation, Yuri Korolev, for some reason the crew simply did not turn it on before the flight.
“As soon as the rescuers reached the crash site on January 11, one of the Emergencies Ministry soldiers turned on our radio beacon on the crashed helicopter at 14.05 Moscow time in order to check its functionality, and it immediately began transmitting a distress signal, the first received by the rescue center in India. Already at 14.08 in Moscow it was clear what kind of helicopter it was, what its tail number was and where it fell,” said Mr. Korolev.
Yesterday, the number of possible versions about the causes of the disaster began to decrease. Thus, earlier there was information that the helicopter could have crashed due to low-quality fuel. However, after an examination, it turned out that the fuel was suitable. As stated by the head of the IAC commission, Vitaly Arkhipenko, the Mi-171 flew on Biysk kerosene for almost four hours. “If the helicopter had been fueled with low-quality fuel, it would not have been in flight for so long,” he noted. Investigators came to the same conclusion. According to the assistant of the West Siberian Investigation Department for Transport, Tatyana Dubenyuk, the specialists of Altai Airlines OJSC, who carried out the examination, had no questions about the quality of the fuel.
The version of engine failure due to a malfunction, voiced by one of the survivors of the disaster, is also called into question. As it turned out during decoding of the “black boxes”, the helicopter’s engines “were operational” until the collision with the ground. However, the IAC did not voice any specific probable versions, noting that the study of the flight recorders found at the Mi-171 crash site is still ongoing. The Gazpromavia company, which owned the helicopter, told Vremya Novostey that at the moment they do not have any information on the results of the investigation.
Against this background, the “human factor” looks like an increasingly likely version of the emergency. Information has already appeared from unofficial sources that the helicopter could have fallen after descending to the minimum possible height so that the hunters in it could shoot the animals directly from the air or pick up already killed animals. After this, the Mi-171 could, on its own or as a result of a gust of wind, hit the mountainside with its tail rotor, after which the vehicle fell and rolled down the mountainside.
Altai government spokeswoman Elena Kobzeva confirmed yesterday that the helicopter was carrying VIP passengers on a hunting trip to the village of Kosh-Achag on the border with Mongolia (no one had previously officially confirmed this information). The regional administration noted that it was a question of hunting mountain goats and all the permits of the people flying on that flight were in order.
However, as stated yesterday by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in fact, the Mi-171 passengers were hunting animals listed in the Red Book. Now a criminal case may be opened on this fact: today WWF together with Greenpeace intend to send a letter to the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation demanding a thorough investigation into the fact of poaching in which high-ranking Russian officials participated.
On Tuesday, a photograph from the crash site appeared on one of the Altai Internet resources, in which the carcasses of dead animals lie next to the wreckage of the helicopter. According to WWF experts, the photo shows an Altai mountain sheep (argali or argali), which is listed in the Russian Red Book of Rare and Endangered Species of Animals. Hunting for argali has been prohibited since 1934; today there are about 200 of them left in Russia.
“There is no doubt that the photographs from the scene of the helicopter crash show a dead argali. This is absolutely a mountain sheep, the hunting of which is prohibited by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Art. 258 (illegal hunting), Vladimir Krever, coordinator of the WWF biological development program, told Vremya Novostey. - Of course, we understand that a tragedy occurred in which people died, and we have no task at all costs to punish those injured as a result of this disaster. But we also cannot close our eyes to the gross violations of the law in which high-ranking officials participated. Therefore, it is absolutely obvious that in this case investigative actions are necessary and those responsible for the death of rare animals must be punished.” Mr. Krever also added that they do not know where the bodies of these animals are now. “We really want to find out for ourselves. After all, in order to establish the whole picture, it is necessary to remove the bullets from them,” he said.