BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20
By Samir Ali - Trend:
There were no malfunction in the helicopter 25 seconds before the crash, deputy head of the Investigation Department of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office, head of the investigation group created in connection with the helicopter crash Sanan Pashayev said at a briefing on the preliminary results of the investigation into a criminal case opened on the crash of a military helicopter of the Azerbaijani State Border Service on November 30 during the training flights, Trend reports on Dec. 20.
Pashayev said that the service life of the crashed Mi-17 helicopter is 35 years.
“The helicopter was sent for repair at the request of the helicopter manufacturer after eight years of operation,” the head of the investigation group added. “The test flights were made after repair in 2021 and it was re-commissioned.”
Pashayev added that there were no problems with the technical parameters of the helicopter.
“The flight recorder was renewed in 2013,” Pashayev said. “It was replaced by a system that could register more parameters. The flight recorder was renewed and transferred to Azerbaijan upon an agreement with the Czech Republic.”
“After the crash, the flight recorder was opened by employees of the Prosecutor General's Offices of the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan,” Pashayev said. “All indicators were submitted to the investigative structures. Before the crash on November 30, the helicopter was flying for 17 minutes and 24 seconds.”
The head of the investigation group said that during preparation for the flight and during the flight, no malfunction was revealed in the helicopter.
“It was revealed that the helicopter crashed while landing,” the head of the investigation group added. “No malfunction was recorded in the helicopter 25 seconds before the crash. The helicopter crashed because the wind direction was not taken into account. Moreover, the actions that did not correspond to the flight method were taken.”
Pashayev said that the pilots tried to improve the situation, but the helicopter rapidly lost altitude and crashed.
“We will publish photographs taken during the consideration of flight recorder information,” Pashayev said.
A military helicopter of the Azerbaijani State Border Service crashed during training flights at the Garaheybat airfield in Khizi district, as a result of which 14 people died and two were injured on November 30 at about 10:40 (GMT +4).
The Investigation Department of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office has initiated a criminal case under Article 352.2 (violation of the rules of flight and preparation for flight, leading to the death of two or more people) and other articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code.