Hope of finding missing 8 fades
OSLO: Hopes of finding survivors from a Russian helicopter which disappeared off the coast of the Arctic Svalbard archipelago faded on Friday as Norwegian rescuers searched in vain for a second day in ice-cold waters.
Eight Russian men - five crew and three passengers - were listed as missing by Norway’s rescue coordination centre, while the location of the Russian-made Mil Mi-8 aircraft remained unknown more than 24 hours after it disappeared.
The helicopter was on its way from the abandoned Pyramiden settlement to the coal mining port of Barentsburg where the Russian coal company Arktikugol runs a mine employing Russian and Ukrainian miners.
“The assumption is that the helicopter has crashed during the approach two kms north of Kapp Heer,” the Accident Investigation Board said in a statement, referring to the local helicopter base.
Snowy weather and high waves were complicating efforts in a region that has almost no daylight at this time of the year, while the air temperature was around minus three degrees Celsius.
A search using a small, remotely-operated submarine, yielded no sign of the helicopter, the rescue coordinators said, dashing earlier hopes that a submerged wreckage had been located.
A somewhat bigger submarine will be flown in and is expected to be operational yesterday, the rescue centre said.