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Five People Killed In Helicopter Accident In Tajikistan


The Mi-8 helicopter had been taking mountaineers to Ismoili Somoni Peak, the highest in the former Soviet Union. (file photo)
The Mi-8 helicopter had been taking mountaineers to Ismoili Somoni Peak, the highest in the former Soviet Union. (file photo)

DUSHANBE -- Five people have died in a helicopter accident in eastern Tajikistan, including three Russian mountaineers and two Tajik members of the helicopter crew, officials say.

Umeda Yusufi, a spokeswoman for Tajikistan's State Emergency Committee, said on August 13 that a Tajik pilot and 12 mountaineers, mainly from Russia, survived what she described as a crash-landing in the Pamir Mountains.

Bad weather conditions might have been the cause of the accident, according to Yusufi.

The Russian Embassy in Tajikistan has not confirmed the nationality of the mountaineers.

Tajik state media reported earlier that the Mi-8 helicopter was carrying 13 Russians, one Belarusian, and one Spanish mountaineer after they reached the Ismoili Somoni Peak, the highest in the former Soviet Union.

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