Vladivostok Novosti Company
January 09, 2007

Helicopter still missing near Arseniev

Combined reports

As of Tuesday, the search for the helicopter Mi-2 which went missing near Primorye’s town of
Arseniev on December 26 in Primorye has yielded no results.

The active stage of the search, performed in an area of 300 square kilometers, has finished, with
a group of rescuers continuing the operation, a press statement from the regional Department for
Emergency Situations said.

The private helicopter, owned by the Association of Minor Aviation ‘Flag’, with three people on
board, made a flight from Arseniev to the village of Yasnoye, in Chuguyevsky County, where it
refilled and was to have returned back the same day.

Two days later, December 28, a relative of one of the passengers reported to the emergency
specialists that the helicopter may have gone missing. The last people to notice the helicopter
were residents of the area over Medvezhy Kut Mountain.

The helicopter’s passengers were the association’s president Arkady Yakovlev, vice-president
Anatoly Grigoryev and test-pilot of the aircraft factory ‘Progress’ Oleg Grigoryev, Deita.ru news
agency reported.

No information on the flight route and purpose had been provided by the helicopter crew, the
statement said.

Rescuers from the emergency department are currently working in Arseniev and nearby territories performing the search.

On Monday, the rescuers, together with 15 local hunters, eight inspectors of Arseniev fire
inspectorate, ten relatives of the missing passengers and seven vehicles performed search in the
area of the Sukhaya and Kholodnaya mountains, which however brought no result.

The helicopter was neither equipped with navigation systems nor registered to any of the
airdromes, the statement reported.
Other materials of this Issue:
Khabarovsk lays out construction plans
British survey ship anchors in Vladivostok
Ode to coat-check-people
Hate crime attackers admit guilt, await trial
Conscript survives stray bullet to head
6 people wounded in street skirmish
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