MOSCOW, February 11The “black boxes” of the Mi-8 helicopter that crashed on February 4 in Karelia have been discovered; they were recovered from the bottom of Lake Onega and are in satisfactory condition, a representative of the emergency services said on Sunday.
““Both “black boxes”, the flight voice recorder and the flight recording device, were dismantled by divers in the tail of the helicopter at the bottom of Lake Onega and raised to the surface,” the agency’s interlocutor said.
According to him, the flight recorders, after being examined by investigators, will be delivered to a specialized research institute for decoding. Both devices are in satisfactory condition, he added.
The Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations with three crew members stopped communicating in Karelia on February 4. The rescue department clarified that the plane was controlled by an experienced crew with thousands of hours of flight time. Later it turned out that the Mi-8 fell into Lake Onega; a hole was discovered 11 kilometers from the shore. The depth at the crash site is about 50 meters. A criminal case has been opened for violating safety rules. Later, divers discovered and recovered the body of one of the crew members from Lake Onega.