Helicopter goes missing in far eastern Russia with 22 people on board

A helicopter with 22 people on board, most of them tourists, has gone missing in Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula in the far east, authorities say.

Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said they lost communication with an Mi-8 helicopter at 04:15 GMT “which had 22 people on board – 19 passengers and three crew members”, in a video posted on Telegram on Saturday.

Rescue teams in helicopters were searching into the night for the missing aircraft, focusing on a river valley that the helicopter was due to fly along, Russian authorities said.

The Mi-8 is a two-engine helicopter designed in the 1960s. It is widely used in Russia, where crashes have been frequent, as well as in neighbouring countries and many other nations.

The helicopter had picked up passengers near the Vachkajec ancient volcano in a scenic area of the peninsula known for its wild landscapes and active volcanoes.

From there it was travelling to the village of Nikolayevka further east – a distance of about 25km (about 15.5 miles), authorities said.

A source in emergency services told state news agency TASS that the helicopter disappeared from radar almost immediately after taking off and the crew did not report any problems.

The local weather service said that there was poor visibility in the area of the airport.

Accidents involving planes and helicopters are frequent in Russia’s far eastern region, which is sparsely populated and where there is often harsh weather.

In August 2021, an Mi-8 helicopter with 16 people on board, including 13 tourists, crashed into a lake in Kamchatka due to poor visibility, killing eight. In July that year, a plane crashed as it came in to land on the peninsula, with 22 passengers and six crew on board, all of whom were killed.