Civilian helicopter crashes in Goychay - UPDATED

23.10.2005

12:17

Press secretary of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan Genadi Evsjukov informed Russian Information Agency "Novosti" that the helicopter crashed because of a collision with a high voltage electricity line. It seems that the crew was attempting to make a landing and was choosing a landing site. They fired a flare but because of a bad visibility [it was late evening] did not notice the electricity line. Helicopter's fuel tanks were fully loaded which only intensified the fire on board.

Helicopter RRA-31007 belonging to an air company from Krasnodar, Russia was making a flight Trabzon [Turkey] – Ganja [Azerbaijan] – Turkmenbashi [Turmenistan] carrying neither cargo nor passengers on board.

Representatives of the Russian Embassy, members of commission organized by state concern AZAL [Azerbaijan Airlines] and investigation and specialists groups of General Prosecutor’s Office came to the crash site.

Sunday morning they started necessary investigative procedures.

As we informed earlier all crew members of KA-32 are deceased:

Captain, Belyanin Michail Viktorovich, 1952
            Kukuchenko Sergei Borisovich, 1953
            Pavlov Viktor Anatolyevich, 1964
            Chipuley Igor Nikolaevich, 1967
            Gorsunov Sergei Petrovich, 1953

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23.10.2005

00:46

All five crew members of the exploded and crashed KA-32 helicopter are deceased. All off them were citizens of the Russian Federation. Helicopter carrying humanitarian cargo to Pakistan was chartered by the United Nations.

23.10.2005

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22:23

Vice-President of Azal Sabir Ilyasov informs that the helicopter, which to Russia and exploded in the air over Goychay was making a flight Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan-Pakistan carrying on board humanitarian help for victims of an earthquake in Pakistan. It is not excluded that all 5 members of the helicopter’s crew are deceased.

The cause of the crash is not known yet.

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21:23

Right now, firefighters try to locolise fire at the crash site that is near a brick factory. The helicopter crashed about 30-40 meters away from people’s domiciles.

No information on the causes of the crash or how many people have suffered is not available at the moment.

Day.az