Helicopter with Belarusian crew crashes in Afghanistan

• 11.07.2012, 8:57

A Mi-8-MTB helicopter with a Russian-Belarusian crew crashed in Afghanistan.

The incident happened last week, Interfax information agency reports with a link to a source in the air transport sector. However, the news about the event appeared only on Tuesday.

According to a source, the helicopter touched fencing when landing 60 km from Kandahar and fell down to the ground from a height of some metres. As a result, a flight mechanic (a Russian national) died after falling out of the helicopter. Aircraft captain (Belarus) and the second pilot (Russia) were taken to a hospital in Kabul and then to a burns centre in Krasnodar (Russia).

This information was confirmed by Andrei Kozlovsky, the director general of PANH company that employed the Mi-8 crew.

The helicopter was registered in Guinea. It carried water for an American military base near Kandahar.