OREANDA-NEWS. On 17 July 2009 was announced, that UTair Aviation carried the participants of the international scientific expedition "Tunguska 2009" from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow on its UT 572 flight.

Twelve scientists from Italy and the USA who have been trying to solve the Tungus riddle for many years are taking part in the expedition. The researchers are advancing a hypothesis that lake Checko located 8 kilometers away from the well-known air explosion epicenter not far from the Podkamenaya Tunguska river can be the Tungus meteorite crater.

Giuseppe Longo, Bologna University Professor, President of Associazione Tunguska thanked UTair Aviation for the provided support. "Thanks to our joint efforts another step has been taken in fathoming one of the Earth’s mysteries" said he when the expedition arrived from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow. Professor Longo informed that the scientists had taken samples of minerals in the vicinity of the supposed meteorite fall epicenter, had taken pictures of lake Checko basin, carried out magnetometer survey of its bottom and prepared materials to compile detailed maps of the area, as well as performed other tasks.

UTair Aviation regularly helps scientists to carry out various projects. The Company’s history already has a record of an episode connected with the Tungus meteorite. In 1999 Mil-26 helicopter carried an expedition of Italian scientists and their colleagues from Moscow and Tomsk to the Podkamennaya Tunguska area. The operation was unique because no proper landing site was available and the disembarkation and unloading of 8 tons of the expedition equipment were carried out during half an hour hovering of the rotary-winged giant near the ground. Thanks to the pilots’ skills the work was successfully completed. The "golden collection" of UTair’s aerial operations includes the delivery of 18 tons of mammoth carcass in the block of permafrost on the external load sling of Mil-26 helicopter to the place of research; the first Mil-26 flight to the North Pole with a prospecting expedition and the representatives of the international Mass Media (more than 50 people) when the rotary-winged giant landed on the landing site chosen in flight with shut-down engines; and other unique projects.