A pilot is seen near the burning Mi-28 attack helicopter from the Berkuty (Golden Eagles) helicopter
display team after a hard touchdown during the Aviadarts military aviation competition yesterday.
Reuters/AFP
Moscow
One pilot died and another was injured when a helicopter crashed at an airshow in the Russian region of Ryazan yesterday.
During aerobatics at the event some 200km southeast of Moscow, an Mi-28 helicopter went into a flat spin before crashing.
Reuters footage showed a figure emerging from the wreckage after it burst into flame.
“The commander has died, the second pilot is alive. According to the second pilot, equipment failure caused the accident,” the head of the Russian Air Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
The attack helicopter was participating in the show as part of a competition organised by the Russian defence ministry, Russian media reported from the event.
The Russian air force proceeded to ground all Mi-28 flights after it was revealed that the crash could have been caused by equipment failure.
The air show Aviadarts, where air force plane and helicopter crews compete to carry out timed tasks, was suspended for the rest of the day.
Television footage showed rescue workers attending to the smouldering helicopter lying on its side in the airfield after it crashed and burst into flames.
The Soviet-designed Mi-28 has been used by the Russian air force since the mid-2000s and is also exported to a number of countries including Iraq.
There have been at least six incidents over the past few weeks involving Russian military planes and helicopters.
