Eight people hurt in Mi-8 helicopter crash-landing in Yakutia

Eight people who were hurt in the crash-landing of a Mi-8 helicopter in Yakutia were taken to hospital, with two of them being in serious condition, the press service of the Polar Airlines said on Thursday.

"Eight people with various injuries received in the crash-landing of theMi-8 helicopter in Yakutia’s Aldansky district were taken to Yakutsk by a sanitary flight in the morning on June 30. They were taken to hospital," it said.

Meanwhile, deputy head of Yakutia’s government, Olga Balabkina, told TASS that two of those injured are in serious condition. She also said that seven more people injured in the accident are being taken to Yakutsk.

First deputy head of Yakutia’s government, Dmitry Sadovnikov, said earlier on Thursday that the ill-fated helicopter was carrying firefighters to the Aldansky district.

According to preliminary data, the Mi-8 helicopter of the Polar Airlines crash-landed in a forst near the settlement of Chagda on Wednesday. There were three crew members and 20 employees of the aerial forest protection service onboard

Yakutia’s Transport Prosecutor’s Office is holding a probe into compliance with the legislation on flight safety. It has opened a criminal case on counts of Part 1, Article 263 of Russia’s Criminal Code ("Violation of the Rules of Safe Traffic and Operation of Railway, Air, Maritime and Internal Water Transport and the Subway").