Helicopter with 22 aboard goes missing in Russia’s region of Kamchatka

A helicopter carrying 22 persons went missing on Saturday in Russia’s Far East region of Kamchatka.

Reports say the Mi-8 helicopter had just taken off near the Vachkazhets old volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula and was flying eastward to the village of Nikolayevka, about 16 miles distant.

The Mi-8T helicopter had 19 passengers and three crew members on board before it disappeared on Saturday, Kamchatka Krai governor Vladimir Solodov said in a statement.

Contact with the chopper was lost at 4:15 p.m. local time Saturday, according to Solodov.

The local weather service said there could have poor visibility in the area around the time of the disappearance.

The crew did not report any problems or issue any distress signals before losing contact.

Kamchatka peninsula is 3,728 miles east of Moscow and 1,242 miles west of Alaska.

The Mi-8 is a twin-engine helicopter designed in the 1960s.

In August 2021, a Mi-8 helicopter crashed into a lake in Kamchatka in poor visibility, killing eight. Sixteen people were on board, including 13 tourists,

In July 2021, a plane crashed during landing on the peninsula with all 28 occupants dead, including 22 passengers and six crew members.