Found on Board the Mi-8 life jackets were not inflated
YAROSLAVL, Nov 4 — RIA Novosti. Life jackets, which are found after the crash at Svalbard belonged to the “Konvers Avia” helicopter Mi-8, was not used, said RIA Novosti Deputy General Director of airline Dmitry Zhelyazkov.
Earlier in mass media it was reported that search teams found at the crash site of the helicopter uninflated life jackets.
According to Zhelyazkova, “the helicopter is supposed to be 25 vests”, they all “have negative buoyancy, i.e. drowning”.
“Emergency life jackets that are used on the helicopter, inflated manually only after the passenger or crew member leaves the aircraft. They are not an automatic trigger, unlike the sea, which inflates upon contact with water… So they are manually activated. If they are not inflated, they are just not activated. Perhaps it was not thought necessary or did not have time”, — he said.
The Agency interlocutor also noted that the passengers and crew of Mi-8 had to wear a vest or to take up with him to leave the helicopter, “and then activate”.
Helicopter Mi-8 of airline “Konvers Avia”, which was carrying five crew members and three employees of the research Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic, went missing on October 26, when flying from the abandoned village Pyramid in Barentsburg. On the night of October 29 to search for the helicopter was joined by more than 40 rescuers EMERCOM of Russia, he was discovered on Sunday by the Norwegian vessel, two kilometers North-East of Cape Heer. The body of one victim found on October 30 in 130 metres from the crash site of the helicopter.