A Russian Air Force helicopter crashed on Tuesday, killing all crew members aboard.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the Mi-8 helicopter crashed approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Moscow in the town of Klin, killing three crew members, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
“According to preliminary information, the cause of the disaster could be a technical malfunction,” the Defense Ministry said, according to a translation.
The helicopter was conducting a training exercise, but was unarmed.
Officials said the helicopter had “made a hard landing in a deserted area.”
The Chief Command of the Russian Aerospace Forces sent a team to the scene of the crash, and they later found both of the aircraft’s black boxes.
This is Russia’s second incident with the Mi-8 helicopter this year. The previous incident, in February, also involved a “hard landing” due to a snowstorm, but was not fatal.
RIA Novosti outlined 23 other incidents with the Mi-8 in the past two years alone, which include 14 accidents in 2018, and nine in 2019.
Tuesday’s crash is the sixth fatal accident in 25 incidents with the helicopter.
The Mi-8 helicopter was created in the 1960s in the Soviet Union and is considered among Russia’s most reliable helicopters. The helicopter is also used in dozens of other countries.
