Crews searching in eastern Russia for the crashed cargo spacecraft “Progress” have instead found the debris of a helicopter which went down more than 25 years ago.
In 1975, the Mi-2 helicopter was sent to extinguish a local forest fire. Due to a pilot error, its mission ended in a swamp.
All six people, including three crew members, managed to get out of the burning machine. The wreckage has not been removed until now.
Investigators have yet to find any large parts of the missing spacecraft. It went down a week ago in the Altay Mountains several minutes after its launch.
The “Progress M-12M” transport ship accident on August 24 was caused by a malfunction in the gas generator in the Soyuz carrier rocket’s third-stage engine. The fourth “Progress” transport ship blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, but failed to reach the target orbit.
The transport ship was to deliver more than 2.6 tons of supplies, including food, water, fuel and equipment, to the International Space Station. The next ship launch is scheduled for autumn. The area where the spaceship is believed to have gone down is now being searched for further debris from the crash.