OREANDA-NEWS. July 8 2011. UTair Aviation has received communications regarding an incident on July 5, 2011 at 9:30 am involving one of its Mi-T8 helicopters carrying 13 passengers on a routine flight to mining site some 320 km from Ust-Kuta in the Irkutsk Region. According to reports, after a successful landing on a clearing chosen from air located 2.5 km away from a mining station, the crew allowed the disembarkation of the 13 passengers according to a standard ‘with engines on’ procedure. After the passengers had exited, the ground under the helicopter’s right wheel gave way and the helicopter tipped, its moving blades striking passengers outside the helicopter. Two passengers, Yuri Vladimirovich Sergienkov and Pyotr Viktorovich Shaburov, suffered fatal injures on the spot. Two other passengers, Aleksei Sergeevich Kladov and Olga Gennadievna Zelenaya, were seriously injured. The remaining passengers and crew members suffered minor injuries.

Passengers and the crew were evacuated by another UTair helicopter to the closest location, the village of Kirensk. From there the two seriously injured passengers were moved by a special UTair Express transport to Irkutsk accompanied by medical personnel from the Irkutsk Regional Center for Emergency Medicine and other specialists. As of July 6th, Alexei Sergeevich Kladov and Olga Gennadievna Zelenaya are now at the Regional Irkutsk hospital where they are receiving medical treatment. Aleksei Kladov is reported in critical condition. Olga Zelenaya’s condition is reported as stable. The remaining passengers and crew members were treated in Kirensk and released. The company will pay compensations to families of the victims and injured in the accident.

A Commission from the Interstate Aviation Committee has flown from Moscow to Irkutsk to investigate the situation.

UTair Aviation has undertaken all steps necessary to secure support the injured and their relatives. The airline has arranged transport for all affected persons and family members. UTair Aviation has received official communications on this incident and would like to correct the information released to the media referencing different sources that the incident involved the ‘hard’ emergency landing of an Mi-8T5 helicopter on July 5, 2011. This latter information is not correct and UTair requests that official agencies and media responsible for distributing the erroneous information offer correct information from this official UTair statement.