A helicopter carrying 28 people, many of whom were children, crashed in Siberia this week, killing at least 19 of those aboard, Russia’s civil aviation authority has reported.
The Mi-8 aircraft operated by Polar Airlines caught fire after crashing in the Sakha region 66 km (41 miles) from the town of Deputatsky with 25 passengers and three crew on board, the Interstate Aviation Committee said.
Among the 28 were 11 children below the age of 12, three of them below the age of three.
Citing a surviving crew member, the committee said on its website that 19 people were killed. State-run Itar-Tass later cited a regional government official as saying 23 people were killed and five survived, including a child.
A regional police source told Rusddia’s Interfax news agency that “the main theory at this time is difficult weather conditions.”
“The helicopter was literally pressed into the slope of the hill by strong, descending air currents.”
Turkic-speaking Sakha, also known as Yakutia, is a vast region – larger than Argentina and almost the size of India – stretching north of the Arctic circle, where helicopters are frequently used to transport people between remote towns and villages.
