A Russian helicopter crashed into the sea in Norway. In Norway, a Russian helicopter crashed into the sea And at this time

The helicopter did not have permission for this flight. If Russians had followed the laws of the country in which they work, the tragedy would not have happened.

Correspondence between Converse Avia and the Norwegian department civil aviation published by the newspaper Svalbardposten. The letter, dated December 20 last year, informs the airline that the Mi-8 helicopter with tail number RA22312 in 2017 can only carry out domestic flights directly related to the mining activities of the Arktikugol trust. The text specifically emphasizes (with reference to Norwegian regulations): “The permit does not apply to any other flights, commercial or non-commercial (including the transport of tourists, cargo, scientists, and international flights from Spitsbergen)".

Let me remind you that on October 26, the helicopter was transporting scientists from the Research Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic, who were completing a cycle of meteorological research on the archipelago. On board were research institute employees Oleg Golovanov, Nikolai Fadeev and Maxim Kaulio. Crew members died along with them: commander Evgeny Baranov, co-pilot Vladimir Frolov, flight mechanic Alexey Poulyauskas, technician Marat Mikhtarov and engineer Alexey Korolev.

It is still unclear what consequences the publication of these documents will have. In theory, sending people on a deliberately illegal flight from which they will not return means facing criminal charges. Let me remind you that it has already been initiated by the Russian Investigative Committee under the article “Violation of flight safety rules resulting in the death of two or more persons.” However, whether the Norwegian documents will be significant for Russian investigators and how “translation difficulties” will affect the qualification of the acts of the defendants is a question.

However, questions should also arise for the leaders of the scientific expedition: how was it thought out? transport support scientists and what made them send people on a deadly flight? It is clear that the research institute did not have the resources to charter a Norwegian aircraft (and this, in the current situation, would be the only legal solution to the issue). Apparently, as often happens, they simply agreed with the Russian trust “in a friendly manner.”

The flight restrictions issued by Converse Avia are related to the peculiarities of the Russian presence in the archipelago. According to the Spitsbergen Treaty, Russians have the right to work in a limited part of it and conduct strictly defined activities, while complying with the laws of the Norwegian crown. This is not the first time these laws have been violated (the loudest scandal was associated with a visit to the archipelago by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin, who is under sanctions). The more violations there are, the more strictly the Norwegian side reminds the Russians that they are guests. Nevertheless, Russians continue to behave on Svalbard as if they were at home.

In 2007, the Russians managed to conduct several flights without notifying the aviation department at all. They transported scientists and a film crew. The helicopters were then operated by the Spark Plus company. Having received the claim, Arktikugol stated that the Norwegians were violating the Spitsbergen Treaty, namely the clause on equal rights to do business on the archipelago. The Ministry of Transport and Communications rejected the trust's complaint in August 2008, recalling that only Norwegian aircraft could fly over Svalbard. And the right of Russians to use their helicopters is an exception to the rule and an act of goodwill. The issue was resolved at the level of the Foreign Ministries of the two states, and Norwegian diplomacy turned out to be more effective.

But this, of course, did not stop the Russians. The documents that have now surfaced may well seriously complicate further work. Russian aviation on the archipelago.

Governor Kirstin Askholt is still diplomatically suggesting that the scientists’ stay in the abandoned village of Pyramid and the fatal flight could be indirectly related to the mining activities of the Russians.

“It’s too early to talk about an investigation, we are still focused on the search operation,” she says.

No mourning events have yet been held in Barentsburg. Arktikugol promises to hold a memorial service only after the bodies of all missing crew members and passengers are found. Russian Consul General Vyacheslav Nikolaev officially thanked the Norwegian side for organizing the search operation. After the crash of the only Russian helicopter in these parts, Governor Askholt provided the Russians with their own plane.

As for the search for the bodies of the dead, they continue, but so far not very successfully. The only body was found 130 meters from the helicopter on October 30. The remains were sent for examination to the Norwegian city of Tromso.

The rise of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter from the bottom of the sea. Photo: RIA Novosti

On the night of November 4, the wreckage of the helicopter was brought to the surface by a Norwegian ship. There were no dead bodies on board the car. But they found 24 there life jacket. Another vest was previously found near the helicopter. This means that none of the passengers or crew members put on a vest before the sea flight, as required by safety regulations. Also, a bag, jacket and shoes were found at the bottom a hundred meters from the crash site. The voice recorder was not found in the cockpit. Found GPS devices will be decrypted in Moscow.

The Russian Consulate General on Spitsbergen, in turn, explained to RBC that information about the crashed helicopter is being clarified. “The helicopter flew to a mothballed village. There is no connection there, we don’t know what happened yet. “We cannot comment on the situation,” the consulate general said.

Right now, as the duty officer of the Norwegian Rescue Service told RBC at about 19:00 Moscow time, two helicopters are operating over the site of the helicopter crash. “No one has been found yet, so we cannot say whether they [the people on board] died or not,” he said. Rescue efforts, as the Norwegian publication Verdens Gang clarifies, are complicated by snow and bad weather conditions.

According to the Russian Bulletin of Spitsbergen magazine, the Mi-8AMT helicopter was delivered to the island in 2013. It is operated by the Converse Avia company.

Deputy General Director for Organization of Transportation and Aviation Operations of this airline, Dmitry Zhelyazkov, told RBC that information about their helicopter is being checked. “We are waiting for information from the Norwegian rescue services,” he said, adding that there was no contact with the crew. On board, as RBC’s interlocutor added, “there were five crew members and three passengers.”

The dispatcher of the planning and dispatch service of the Converse Avia airline, in turn, said that the air carrier’s employees “do not fully know the circumstances themselves.” “We collect information, [we find out] different circumstances. We don’t know anything yet,” he noted, adding that “the helicopter is new, good” and “tested.” “I flew constantly. He was always checked, and he passed the regulations,” the dispatcher explained.

“To work on Spitsbergen, Converse Avia sends only the best and well-proven specialists who have exceptionally extensive experience working in high-latitude areas - in the Arctic and the Far North,” Zhelyazkov said in September. “The airline does not lack such personnel, having long-term multi-year contracts for aviation services with large Russian oil and gas companies,” he noted.

The Mi-8AMT helicopter is capable of carrying up to 24 passengers and up to 4000 kg of cargo. Converse Avia operates flights to Spitsbergen in the interests of the Arktikugol trust, as well as for Consulate General Russia, transporting trust workers and consulate employees from Longyearbyen airport to Barentsburg and back. In addition, from time to time the company carries out flights for scientific and other purposes, which are subject to approval by the Norwegian Aviation Administration and the Governor of Svalbard.

In general, Converse Avia carries out commercial air transport And aviation work using Mi-8T, Mi-8MTV, Mi-2, R-44 helicopters. In total, the airline has more than 20 of its own helicopters. The air carrier organizes flights, including to the EU, the Middle East and Africa. Converse Avia's home airport is Tver Zmeevo Airport.

Barentsburg is a residential village next to a coal mine, which the Arktikugol trust has been developing since 1932. About 400 people live in Barentsburg, but the village is visited by thousands of tourists every year. In the residential village of Barentsburg there is a hotel, a hospital, kindergarten and other social facilities.

“In Barentsburg there is a Russian science Center. It is supervised by the Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic, and it sends employees there,” Viktor Boyarsky, former director of the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, told RBC. According to him, “the employees work there for quite a long time, sometimes for six months, sometimes they change more often.” “They carry out various work on climate research and monitoring ice, sea level and so on, a whole range of work,” he explained, noting that, according to his information, “there were three employees of the Research Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic and five crew members on board "

Until 1920, Spitsbergen was considered a “no man's” territory, but then became part of Norway, subject to the remaining countries retaining the right to conduct economic activities in the archipelago. The USSR, and after its collapse, Russia, in accordance with Norwegian legislation, was granted a special status on Spitsbergen.

Barentsburg is considered a kind of Russian “capital” on Spitsbergen, in addition, the “Russian territory” includes the mothballed mines of Grumant and Colsbay, as well as the village of Pyramid and an area called the Bogeman Tundra.

Pyramid is also a coal deposit. Sweden began construction and equipment of the mine in 1910. 17 years later, the Soviet trust “Severoles” became the owner of this village. In 1931, this territory was transferred to the Arktikugol trust.

In recent years, to transform the village of Pyramid into a tourist area, the Arktikugol trust has overhauled a hotel in the village, and also restored utility networks, heat and water supply. Three guest houses were installed at the port for tourists. As part of the program for the protection of cultural monuments in Spitsbergen, in February 2011, the Arktikugol trust and the governor of Spitsbergen agreed to jointly carry out work on the repair and maintenance of part of the buildings of the village. In total, about 1 thousand people live in the Pyramid, according to the publication Dagbladet.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption This photo of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was taken in Barentsburg in 2011

The rescue center of Northern Norway reported that as a result of a search operation near the Svalbard archipelago, where a Russian Mi-8 crashed on Thursday, fragments of a crashed helicopter were found at the bottom of the sea.

The wreckage was found at a depth of 209 meters, Norwegian rescuers say, approximately 1.2 nautical miles (about 2.2 km) northeast of Isfjord, located on the western coast of the island of Western Spitsbergen.

At this point, the rescuers completed their work; the police will now begin searching for the bodies of passengers and crew members. On board crashed helicopter there were eight people - it is assumed that all of them died.

As Interfax clarifies, citing a source in the international aviation search and rescue services, “objects characteristic of the cockpit of a Russian helicopter and personal belongings of the crew members were allegedly discovered at a depth of 178 m.”

It is still premature to talk about the discovery of fuselage fragments, the source claims.

“Russian divers with deep-sea robotic equipment are being sent to the site from Murmansk to explore the bottom,” he said.

The details of the operation were described by the Governor of Spitsbergen, Kerstin Askholt. According to her, Russian rescuers will work together with the Norwegians; they are now heading to the crash site on board the Polarsissell.

• Andrey Rogachevsky: Russian Spitsbergen yesterday and today

The night before, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that “more than 40 rescuers from two advanced units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Centrospas detachment and the Leader Center, flew to Norway, including 17 divers who have permission to carry out search and rescue work at great depths.” .

According to RIA Novosti, it is also planned to attract a vessel capable of lifting a helicopter.

"Russian" island

The Mi-8, which had three passengers and five crew members on board, was heading from Russian village The Barentsburg pyramid fell into the sea near the Spitsbergen archipelago on Thursday at around 15:35 local time.

Spitsbergen is a Norwegian archipelago, but Russian miners have been living and working there for almost 100 years, and some economic activity in the archipelago, according to its special status, Russia carries out.

Soon, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed that all eight people on board the helicopter were Russian citizens, while three passengers were employees of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic.

Barentsburg is the second largest settlement in the Spitsbergen archipelago. The population of Barentsburg and the village of Pyramid is about 500 people.

The archipelago was discovered by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents in 1596. WITH late XIX centuries, coal began to be mined here. In 1920, an international treaty was signed that allowed Russia to operate in Spitsbergen.

By the early 1930s, three Soviet mining villages emerged on Spitsbergen - Pyramid, Grumant and Barentsburg; they were bought from Dutch and Swedish companies by the state-owned company Arktikugol. Russia remains the only country other than Norway that continues to mine coal in Spitsbergen.

Polina Dukhanova

Off the coast of Norway, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter with eight people on board disappeared from radar. According to the Norwegian rescue service, it crashed. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported to RT that information about the flight stopped coming when the helicopter was 10 kilometers from Barentsburg on the Spitsbergen archipelago. The Russian department is preparing an Il-76 aircraft with divers, underwater vehicles and drones to fly to Spitsbergen.

A Russian helicopter crashed into the sea off the coast of Norway. There were eight people on board, the country's rescue service reports. The incident occurred a few kilometers from the Russian mining village of Barentsburg on the Spitsbergen archipelago.

“A Russian helicopter, eight people on board, fell into the sea 2-3 kilometers from Barentsburg. Northern Norway Rescue Service is coordinating the operation,” the department said on Twitter.

Et russisk helikopter med 8 personer om bord har gått ned i havet 2-3 km fra Barentsburg. HRS NN koordinerer og vil komme med mer info.

October 26, 2017

Rescuers note that the helicopter, apparently, was flying along the route from the village of Pyramid to Barentsburg.

“The helicopter was most likely heading from (Russian) RT) the village of Pyramid in Barentsburg. He disappeared and crashed around 15:35 local time (16:35 Moscow time - RT), - reported on Twitter.

Helikopteret skulle fly fra Pyramiden til Barentsburg. Ble meldt savnet ca kl 15:35 og bekreftet gått ned ca kl 15:45

— HRS Nord-Norge (@HRSNordNorge) October 26, 2017

Two rescue boats and a helicopter were sent to the scene, as stated by rescue service spokesman Thure Hongseth. In addition, the ship of the governor of Spitsbergen, Polarsyssel, also moved there.

• Vessel Polarsyssel
• Jan-Morten Bjoernbakk

It is known that the missing plane belongs to the Converse Avia company. It is Russian and has been operating since 1995. Its fleet includes more than 30 helicopters that provide aviation support for icebreakers and sea ​​vessels, and also serve Russian organizations in Norway. It also has official UN accreditation and provides aviation services to the world organization's missions and units.

“The helicopter belongs to our company. On this moment we do not confirm the information that it crashed. There is no contact with him yet,” TASS quoted Dmitry Zhelyazkov, deputy general director of Converse Avia, as saying.

The company noted that the helicopter was technically sound and was regularly checked before departure. “The Mi-8AMT helicopter is adapted for flights in the northern regions; it was manufactured in 2013,” Zhelyazkov specified. He emphasized that the aircraft was piloted by an experienced crew who knew well the specifics of flights to Spitsbergen.

“Some of the most experienced pilots work in the Arctic conditions and have special training. The commander is one of the most experienced in the company,” said the deputy general director.

Converse Avia employees also joined the rescue operation, as reported to RT by the adviser to the airline’s general director, Alexander Shilov.

• Barentsburg city sign on the Svalbard archipelago
• RIA News
• Mikhail Voskresensky

Information about the helicopter was confirmed by RT and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to them, the plane disappeared from radar screens 10 kilometers from Barentsburg.

“Information has been received that in the Greenland Sea, 10 km from the village of Barentsburg, a Mi-8 helicopter with eight Russian citizens on board disappeared from radar screens. The helicopter followed the route locality Pyramid - Barentsburg. Search and rescue operations are being carried out in cooperation with the Norwegian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. Helicopters with rescuers on board have been sent to the area where the Mi-8 helicopter is supposed to be located. The work is complicated by unfavorable weather conditions,” a representative told RT National Center management in crisis situations of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Artyom Volkov.

The department clarified that an Il-76 plane with rescuers from the Tsentrospas detachment and the Leader center is being prepared to be sent to Spitsbergen.

“A group of rescuers is preparing to be sent to Spitsbergen, which will include more than 20 divers from the Tsentrospas detachment and the Leader center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, who have access to deep-sea search and rescue work, as well as Falcon underwater vehicles and drones for monitoring the waters of the Greenland Sea. sea,” TASS quotes the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

As confirmed by the Russian Consul General on Spitsbergen, Vyacheslav Nikolaev, only Russian citizens were on board the helicopter.

“On board there were crew members and three scientists - all Russian citizens. So far the helicopter has not been found. Two possible options are being considered: a crash and a forced landing. Both our search engines and the Norwegian rescue services are engaged in the search,” TASS quotes the diplomat.

He clarified that rescuers arrived at the crash area within 20-30 minutes. At the same time, Nikolaev emphasized that it has not yet been possible to establish the exact location of the helicopter.

• Residents of the Russian village of Pyramid
• RIA News

Meanwhile, Norwegian rescuers reported that the helicopter did not send a distress signal. “As far as we understand, we are talking about a crash. The helicopter did not send a distress signal,” service representative Fin Toure Sortlan told NRK television.

“They may still be alive if there were means of survival on board. So far, we have not been able to detect the helicopter itself, but we have found traces of fuel on the water and are narrowing the search area,” the agency quotes Delbecca.

The press service of the Russian Ministry of Energy published the names of passengers and crew who disappeared off the coast of Norway. These are employees of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute - Oleg Golovanov, Nikolai Fadeev and Maxim Kaulio. The crew members are commander Evgeny Baranov, co-pilot Vladimir Frolov, flight mechanic Alexey Pouliauskas, technician Marat Mikhtarov and engineer Alexey Korolev.