KRASNOYARSK, August 23 (Itar-Tass) —— The technical malfunction of an An-2 airplane and a piloting mistake are mainly considered behind the air crash in Tuva, a source in the Western Siberian transport investigation department told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
The investigators interrogated the passengers, who were onboard the An-2 airplane in the crash on August 22 in the Todzhi district of the Russian Republic of Tuva. “The detectives found out that the An-2 airplane was carrying eight people, one of which was killed and other four people are in grave condition. The doctors said that three people are in satisfactory condition. According to preliminary reports, the airplane crashed in the takeoff and fell down in the water,” the source said.
A team of detectives from the Abakan branch of the Western Siberian transport investigation department will go to Tuva on Tuesday evening. A team of detectives from the Tuva branch of the Investigation Committee is working at the crash site.
The incident occurred on the Choigan-Hol Lake in a picturesque Todzhi district of Tuva. The An-2 airplane with fishermen onboard was reportedly on a flight to local lakes. The airplane, the flight of which was not registered, crashed on the lake, the republican emergency service said. The criminal case was opened over the air crash.
This is already not the first case of unauthorized air flights in the Todzhi district of Tuva. The patrol of police commandoes and gamekeepers detained the An-2 airplane without any numbers and identification marks in late July. Then the airplane landed in the federal state nature reserve Azas in the settlement of Sorug, the Todzhi district, on the meadow with the runway on it. A hunting rifle without any gun license, a signal pistol and poached fish, including seven taimen fish put on the Red Book, 13 lenok fish and 74 grayling fish. All fish was caught by the nets, ichthyologists concluded.
In 2008 the Tuva forest rangers caught red handed only the poachers, but the helicopter, which brought them from the neighboring region, succeeded to fly away.
The gamekeepers and policemen have available information that at least four vehicles, which have regular flights to Tuva, poach the taiga animals and fish without any licenses.