A tourist group of 8 people got into rockfall in mountains of the AltayRepublic. Employees of the national park informed the Emergencies Ministry of Russia about the accident on 9 August. The only way to help the tourists, one of which was severely injured and required professional medical aid, was to get there by helicopter. It would have taken 3 days only to get to the site of the accident on foot through the rough mountainous terrain.

The Emergencies Ministry’s Mil Mi-8 helicopter with rescuers on boards immediately took off to the site of the accident. The most experienced crew from Siberia Viktor Bazhenov and Aleksandr Andronov piloted the helicopter. Relief operations in the mountains are the most complicated ones, require professionalism and reasonable risk. The narrow gorge, rough rocks didn’t allow landing the helicopter near the site of the accident. The pilots had to hold the helicopter hovering above the rocks, until the rescuers got to the injured and delivered him to the helicopter. The pilots didn’t have other options. It was necessary to deliver the tourist with multiple injuries to the hospital as soon as possible. Medic of a rescue team rendered the medical aid to the injured tourist in flight, and upon arrival the injured was delivered to the town of Gorno-Altaysk.

It appeared, that one tourist was killed in a rockfall. Rescuers of the Emergencies Ministry of Russia will take one more flight today to clear out rubble and recover the body.

The group consisted from tourists from Nizhny Tagil, Yekaterinburg and Ryazan. The tourists were highly depressed and had to discontinue their trip.