Russia’s Mi-28 Helicopter crashes, all crew members killed ⁰

A Russian military helicopter has crashed in the country’s Kaluga region during a routine flight killing all of its crew members, as confirmed by the country’s Defense Ministry.

In a statement early on Thursday, Russia’s defense ministry said that a Mi-28 military helicopter crashed in the Zhizdra district of the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, killing all its crew members.

The ministry said a technical malfunction was likely to blame, but no specific number of individuals on board was mentioned. However, a Mi-28 helicopter usually carries a crew of two.

“A commission of the Russian Aerospace Forces is working at the site of the crash,” the ministry added.

According to TASS news agency, the helicopter was performing a scheduled flight when the incident occurred. The crew members did not survive, as the Mi-28 is not equipped with a crew ejection system, unlike the Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopter.

The Russian aircraft crashed in a remote area near the village of Klyonki, without causing any further damage on the ground, as reported by local officials.

The governor of Kaluga, Vladislav Shapsha, has confirmed the incident, revealing that the crash occurred in Zhizdrinsk district on the border with the Bryansk region, which is on the frontier with Ukraine.

Shapsha wrote on Telegram that rescuers were working at the crash site.

Moreover, the Telegram channel of Mash online newspaper disclosed that the helicopter, which is often used on drone-hunting missions, was heading back from a combat mission when a crew member spotted a fire on board, apparently caused by an engine malfunction.

As a result, the pilot decided to redirect the aircraft to an unpopulated area to prevent any potential harm to civilians.

The Cold War-era Mi-28 helicopter is a twin-seat attack helicopter, designed as an anti-tank attack platform similar in scope and function to the American Hughes AH-64 Apache series.

It took its first flight in 1982, becoming an all-weather attack helicopter with multiple updated models.

Source: Presstv