An active search for a mysterious aircraft that sent distress signals is ongoing in the republic of Buryatia. This signal came from Kurumkansky district and was recorded by a dispatcher of the Coordination Search and Rescue Centre at Novosibirsk airport Tolmachevo. An Honored Military Pilot of the USSR Semyon Pritykov commented on the situation for Pravda.Ru.
Rescue workers and police of Kurumkansky district of Buryatia have to deal with dense taiga in their search for the source of the signal as this area is considered real backwoods. Meanwhile, local authorities interview people in the region. The residents of the nearby settlements claim that they have not seen or heard anything. An appearance of a plane or helicopter in this area is an event, and people would have remembered.
An exotic theory that some alien UFO crashed in the woods does not hold water. The alarm signal was sent from a completely terrestrial radio beacon of a system installed on a variety of aircraft, mainly domestic. It was sent on the airwaves of the range considered a "hazard zone" as no one has the right to broadcast through them unless something extraordinary happens. Meanwhile, signals from emergency beacons continue to arrive, albeit with intervals. The search for the unknown aircraft continues, but so far it has been futile.
Russian history knows quite a few mysterious catastrophes, often involving well-known people in the country. No one is immune to tragedy. For example, a famous surgeon, ophthalmologist, academician Svyatoslav Fyodorov died on June 2, 2000 in a crash of Eurocopter Gazelle helicopter that belonged to his clinic. Fyodorov was returning from a conference in Tambov.
The aircraft crashed on a vacant lot near Bratsevo at the Moscow Ring Road. Four people were on board: Fyodorov and his pilot Anatoly Lobov in the front seats, and navigator Anvar Huseynov and engineer of IRTC "Eye Microsurgery" Alexander Spiridonov in the rear seats. All four were killed. At the conclusion of a special commission, the cause of the crash was identified as a technical failure of the helicopter. However, questions still remain.
There are more recent plane crashes as well. On July 2, 2013 in Ust-Yanskiy district of Yakutia in the vicinity of Deputatsky village, Mi-8T "Polar Airlines" helicopter crashed, and 24 people were killed. The area was foggy and rainy, but the commander decided to take off. Later the investigation found that when the alarm signaling a dangerous proximity to the ground went off, the helicopter crew switched to the climb mode and tried to fly over the hill that emerged in their way.
However, in flight the top of the aircraft hit the downward flow of air, tilted, and then its tail rotor caught the hill. The Mi-8 lost control and fell on the slope. Only the crew captain has survived. He managed to contact the dispatcher and report the incident. Three other passengers have survived as well.
On May 6, 2013 in the Katanga district of Irkutsk region, six kilometers from the village Preobrazhenka, a Mi-8T helicopter crashed, killing nine people. The helicopter was used for flood protection activities that included an inspection of the area and ice explosions.
An Honored Military Pilot of the USSR Semyon Pritykov commented on the situation for Pravda.Ru.
"No matter how experienced a pilot is, how well coordinated the crew is, no matter how safe an aircraft seems, you can never break the flight rules. As for the situation with an unidentified aircraft that sent a distress signal in Buryatia, I will say that if no one knew of the flight, it was obviously not registered in advance with relevant authorities, and no permission to fly was issued. Excessive self-confidence in the air sooner or later leads to tragedy. Hopefully, of course, the crew or the passengers of the aircraft are alive, but they shouldn't have done it. The main rule in the air is the strictest discipline."
Andrei Mikhailov
Pravda.Ru