Eight tourists missing after helicopter crashes into Russian volcanic lake
- The helicopter went down in Kuril Lake in the Kronotsky nature reserve
- Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said 13 tourists and three crew members were aboard the Mi-8 chopper and eight people survived
A helicopter carrying tourists plunged into a deep volcanic crater lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East early on Thursday, and rescuers were searching in the lake for up to eight people still missing, officials said. At least eight others reportedly survived.
The Mi-8 helicopter sank in Kurile Lake, which was formed in a volcano caldera and crater and is located in the Kronotsky nature reserve. The water temperature in the lake was 5-6 degrees Celsius (41-42.8F), and the survivors had to swim about nine metres (29.5 feet) up to the surface from the sinking helicopter, spokespeople for the reserve said.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said 13 tourists and three crew members were aboard the helicopter when it crashed, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. Two of the survivors were badly injured and have been taken to the intensive care unit at a local hospital.
Rangers in the nature reserve reported hearing the helicopter approaching the lake and then the sound of it hitting the surface and said they immediately dispatched two boats to the crash site.
“The water was really cold. The fog was low,” one of the survivors, Viktor Strelkin, said in a video interview released by the government of Kamchatka. He said the rescue boats arrived just in time after he swam up to the lake surface.
