OREANDA-NEWS. On 14 July 2008 was announced, that UTair (UTair Aviation, JSC) has conducted an operation in the Democratic republic of Congo upon the request of the Foreign Ministry of Russia in search of a jet that went missing in September 2007. An Antonov AN-12 aircraft with Russian crew on board was lost while performing a flight from Kisangagni to Goma.

UTair pilots headed by commander of the air group Oleg Belevikin took great care in their preparations for the operation. Having analyzed information about the route of An-12, they defined the search area of 25 kilometers in width and 85 kilometers in length. The work was complicated by the nature of the geographical conditions, as the whole of the search area is a jungle with dense overgrowth.

Upon receipt of the approval of the UN mission in Congo and the country’s aviation authorities, UTair Aviation helicopters thoroughly reconnoitered the area for five days trying to locate the possible crash site, but found no sings of a plane crash in this sector.UTair Aviation undertook all the costs of the operation.