Wreckage of helicopter missing in Russia’s far east spotted. No information on its 22 occupants

Rescuers have located a helicopter that went missing in Russia’s far east with 22 people on board, Russian officials said.

The Kamchatka region’s minister for emergency situations, Sergei Lebedev, said that, according to preliminary information, the helicopter had crashed.

“The wreckage of the previously missing helicopter was discovered from the air. It is located at an altitude of 900 meters near the place where it was last contacted,” Russia’s Emergencies Ministry wrote on Telegram.

There was no official information about the passengers or crew.

The Mi-8 helicopter took off close to the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka region on Saturday but did not arrive at its destination as scheduled, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency earlier said in a statement.

It said it believed that 19 passengers and three crew members were on board.

The Mi-8 is a two-engine helicopter designed in the 1960s. It is widely used in Russia, where crashes have been frequent, as well as in neighboring countries and many other nations.