Giant Helicopter Crashes In Russia
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A hulking Russian military helicopter, designed for 80 people but carrying at least 132, crash-landed in a minefield near the main military base in Chechnya on Monday, causing explosions that increased a death toll believed to be in the dozens, officials and news agencies reported. A number of soldiers apparently survived the crash only to activate mines on emerging from the wreckage. It appeared to be the worst air disaster since Russia began its second war in Chechnya nearly three years ago. Initial reports indicated that the helicopter — an Mi-26 transport craft known as The Cow because of its size — had been shot down by Chechen rebels. But as a frantic rescue effort continued, officials said the copter’s pilot, Maj. Oleg Batanov, reported a fire in the helicopter’s right engine moments before crash-landing short of the base’s airfield. There were no reports that the pilot mentioned hostile fire. Some estimates put the death toll as high as 100, but Russian military officials had not released an official count by early today. They reported that at least 32 soldiers and crew-members had survived and were being treated at a military hospital on the base, in Khankala, just east of the Chechen capital, Grozny. The rescue effort was delayed until explosives experts could clear a path for emergency workers through the mines, which encircle the Russian base, according to news reports. Mines first went off when the helicopter came down, setting it ablaze. Soldiers clambering out of the helicopter set off more of them; the site was strewn with bodies, according to an on-line report early today by the newspaper Kommersant. In its scale, the crash was comparable to the sinking of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea, which killed all 118 crew members just over two years ago. President Vladimir V. Putin, whose response to the Kursk disaster was criticized as cold and uncaring, immediately called for a commission to investigate the cause of the crash. More : query.nytimes.com |