The Russian Emergency Ministry’s task force continue SAR operation on Spitsbergen.

A 250-ton Norwegian ship with necessary remote-control equipment and a crane arrived at the Mi-8 crash scene last night. Specialists are now getting the equipment ready to raise the helicopter from the sea bottom.

“During the day, specialists of the Russian Emergency Ministry together with Norwegian authorities and the ship’s crew are going to work on technical side of the recovering operation,” said Yevgeny Saidov, head of the Emergency Ministry’s task force on Spitsbergen.

At the same time. Rescue divers of the Tsentrospas Team and Leader Center go on with SAR efforts using special equipment and gears. Over the past day, they used a mini submarine to examine the wreckage and to determine areas where the dead may be.

By now, they have examined over 60 thousand sq. meters of the sea bottom. The SAR operation is ongoing along the shoreline of the Isfjorden Strat too involving 4 mobile teams of rescuers who have combed more than 50 sq. meters.

The Russian Mi-8 with 8 people aboard left the settlement of Pyramiden on 26 October and was headed to Barentsburg, when rescue center got a report that the aircraft went missing.

On the night of 29 October, an Ilyushin Il-76 plane owned by the Russian Emergency Ministry transported rescuers to Norway to help with the SAR operation near Spitsbergen. The task force includes more than 40 rescuers, including 17 divers cleared for deep-water SAR operations.