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Chopper crash kills more than 100
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MORE than 100 servicemen were killed and 39 injured when a
troop transport helicopter crashed outside a Russian military
base, a top Chechen official reported yesterday, in what media
called Russia’s biggest military air disaster.The statement by
Rudnik Dudayev, chief of the Chechen government’s security
council, which was reported by the Interfax news agency, was
the first direct official confirmation of the deaths of scores
of soldiers and officers in the crash Monday outside the
Russian military headquarters of Khankala, near the Chechen
capital Grozny.Russian state television said close to 110
servicemen had been killed and 33 injured. The ITAR-Tass news
agency said more than 105 servicemen were killed. It also said
that there were three civilians among the passengers.Estimates
of the number of people aboard the huge Mi-26 helicopter
varied widely. Col. Boris Podoprigora, deputy commander of
Russian troops in Chechnya, said that the aircraft was
carrying 132 servicemen from Mozdok, a regional military base,
to Khankala. Earlier reports ranged from 80 people on board to
142. The helicopter was built for 85, in addition to cargo.
The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source close to
investigators as saying that there were 156 names on the
flight manifest, including the five-member crew.All five
crewmen survived the crash. Officials did not say why so many
servicemen were on the flight. However, the Kommersant
business daily reported yesterday that Mozdok had suffered a
spell of bad weather in recent days, with rain and heavy fog,
and that flights had been irregular in any case because of
inadequate supplies of fuel and spare parts.The pilot reported
hearing a thump on the right side of the helicopter, and
monitoring equipment in the cockpit signaled a fire.Soldiers
on the ground and pilots in an accompanying helicopter said
they saw ground fire — backing up the rebel claim that their
missile had brought down the helicopter — and the pilot
requested permission to perform an emergency landing because
of a fire in the right engine.Prosecutor-General Vladimir
Ustinov and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov flew to Khankala
yesterday to oversee the probe, following President Vladimir
Putin’s call late Monday for a “full and objective”
investigation.(SD-Agencies)
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