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YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, March 28 The entrepreneur whose helicopter crashed on Sakhalin with tourists from Khabarovsk on board did not have a permit for commercial air transportation, informs Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor's Office.
«It has been established that an individual entrepreneur organized a pleasure flight of citizens in a helicopter, without having an air operator's certificate for commercial air transportation,» the ministry said in a statement.
According to the press service, the check has already been completed. The transport prosecutor initiated an administrative offense case against the businessman. The resolution is being considered by the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor.
The prosecutor also applied to the court with a statement of claim for the recognition of illegal activities of an entrepreneur in the provision of commercial services for the transport of passengers using aircraft, a ban on commercial flights without an appropriate air operator certificate and advertising of these services. The claim is pending.
The investigation into the circumstances and causes of the helicopter crash by the Interstate Aviation Committee has not yet been completed. At the request of the prosecutor, an advertisement offering paid pleasure flights on the entrepreneur's helicopters was removed from the Internet.
Robinson 44 made a hard landing near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on 17 February. There were three people on board the helicopter — the pilot and two passengers. The aircraft commander and a woman tourist died in the accident, the male passenger was hospitalized, and later he was operated on by surgeons of the regional clinical hospital. After the helicopter crash, law enforcement agencies opened a criminal case. The investigation considered two main versions as the causes of the Robinson 44 accident — a technical malfunction of the vessel and a violation of piloting rules.
According to local media, the helicopter commander Dmitry Pyataev took on board a married couple Daria and Andrey Martynenko from Khabarovsk. The couple did not take their four-year-old son on a flight, left him at a local hotel, then the child was taken by relatives in Khabarovsk.