Specialists eliminate consequences of military helicopter's crash on Kamchatka lake

Specialists are eliminating the ecological damage done by the military helicopter Mi-8 which made an emergency landing on the Lake Kalygir on the Kamchatka Peninsula (the northeast of Russia).

As RIA Novosti was told in the press service of the administration of the Kamchatka Region, a greater part of the fuel, which remained in the helicopter's tanks has been pumped out and poured into hermetic vessels. But the mixture of kerosene and snow that fills the hole in the ice around the crashed helicopter represents a danger, and it has to be immediately removed.

It is impossible to take the helicopter's wreckage away by air. Therefore, the fuselage of the Mi-8 will be cut into parts and taken away by the Vityaz caterpillar cross-country vehicles. The command of the military group promised to complete liquidating the consequences of the incident till February 26.

The work must be completed in full before the ice on the lake will start melting, that is, by the middle of March.

According to the experts' data, the helicopter had 3.6 tons of kerosene on board, some ten liters of oil mixture and 8.76 kilograms of freon.

Lake Bolshoi Kalygir is a first category fishing basin, a traditional spawning place for precious species of salmon (humpback salmon, red fish and king salmon). A delay in evacuating the helicopter may cause an ecological disaster. In this case poisoned water will flow to Lake Maloye, the Kalygir Bay and then into the Pacific Ocean. It is in this way that the salmon annually goes to the spawning place in the lake.

A case of administrative violation of the law has been launched in connection with the pollution of the lake.

The MI-8 helicopter of the aviation regiment of the Air Force and Air Defense made an emergency landing on the ice of the Lake Kalygir on January 22.

The three members of the crew and two passengers who were injured waited for aid for a whole day in hunters' huts some two and a half kilometers away from the place of the incident.

The military prosecutor's office is investigating the criminal case under the Article: Violation in the Use of Flying Vehicles and of the Rules of Safety Flights."