A Mil Mi-8/MTV1 helicopter (registration RF-32755) crashed yesterday, Sunday 4 February, in the Russian republic of Karelia, located in the north-western part of the country, on the border with Finland. The aircraft belonged to the government fleet of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergencies. The death toll from the accident is three, that is all the people who were on board. 

According to a first reconstruction of the accident, during a training flight on the Petrozavodsk-Vytegra route the helicopter suddenly disappeared from radar on Sunday evening. The pilot made his last communication while flying over the village of Derevyannoye, Karelia. The wreckage of the aircraft was found 11 km from the shore of Lake Onega, the second largest lake in Europe, at a depth of 50 metres. 

"The helicopter was operating a training flight and was piloted by an experienced crew, with thousands of flight hours", the ministry explained via their social network pages. Authorities added that divers and a remote-controlled underwater drone were used to locate the vehicle and its occupants.