Kazakhstan: Aircraft Debris Found in Search for Missing Military Helicopter

Search teams in Kazakhstan have discovered an oil slick on a lake and aircraft fragments that appear to belong to a military-operated helicopter carrying three people that was reported missing, The Caspian Post informs via Timseca.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations launched an intensive search and rescue operation after contact with the EC145 helicopter was lost on Friday in the area of Otar, a village west of Almaty. Satellite detection methods spotted oily water on Lake Sorbulak, about 40 kilometers northwest of Almaty, and searchers working through the night found aircraft debris “presumably belonging to” Kazakhstan’s Air Defense Forces, the ministry said on Friday.

It said echo sounders as well as aerial and underwater drones were being used in the operation.

“About 200 personnel, 40 units of equipment, 15 watercraft, 4 canine units, and 2 aircraft of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are involved,” the ministry said.

The Ministry of Defense said the helicopter had been on a scheduled flight and that “a special commission has been dispatched to determine the circumstances of the incident.”

The Eurocopter EC145 is a twin-engine, light utility aircraft.