2021 Vityaz-Aero Mil Mi-8 crash
Mil Mi-8 · Impact with water due to loss of situational awareness, poor weather conditions and insufficient training
From Nikolayevka, Russia to an unrecorded destination
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 8
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 8
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
Mil Mi-8
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-8
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- RA-24744
- Operator
- Vityaz-Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From Nikolayevka, RussiaTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Organizational issues › Management
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
On Thursday, 12 August 2021, a Mil Mi-8 helicopter belonging to the Russian tourism airline Vityaz-Aero, with 16 people on board, struck the waters of Kurile Lake in the Kronotsky nature reserve, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.
Eight people managed to escape from the sinking aircraft and were rescued by rangers of the Kronotsky nature reserve, who rushed to the crash site in boats.
The remaining eight people went missing, as they could not get out of the helicopter and were trapped in the wreckage of the aircraft under water. The local rescue services therefore said it was practically impossible to find them alive. Two days later, three bodies were recovered. The Kamchatka branch of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the search operation was suspended due to poor weather conditions after the fourth body was found days later.
Investigation and cause
Rescue and investigation efforts
Staff of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve stood on the shore and waited for the helicopter to land. After hearing the sound of the impact, they immediately got into the boats and began to row towards those who had managed to get out of the helicopter and rescued them.
The crash site could only be reached by helicopter, and in addition fog complicated the rescue efforts of several local emergency workers, including three divers.
The teams of doctors that went to the site were reinforced by ambulance workers, equipped with medicines and all other necessary means. In addition, it became known that during the flight the crew did not report any technical problem on board.
Viktor Strelkin, mentioned above, said that the rescuers worked very quickly and this saved the lives of those who were in the water. On the shore, the victims were wrapped in blankets, given hot drinks and provided with the necessary medical assistance. According to other survivors, the co-pilot was ejected from the cockpit together with his seat.
Some of the victims of the crash were taken to the regional hospital of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; one of them underwent surgery to save one of his legs, the press service of the regional government reported.
The authorities banned Vityaz-Aero from carrying further passengers pending a preliminary clarification of the events. The company is the largest of several local aviation groups that carry tourists to the Kronotsky reserve, one of the main tourist attractions, which is home to Russia's only geyser basin.
It was also said that, due to the wreckage recovery operation, access to Kurile Lake was restricted for tourists for at least one week.
Investigation
Somewhat more than a year after the event, the investigation revealed that the pilot did not make the timely decision to fly to an alternate aerodrome amid weather conditions unfavourable for instrument flight, also citing the low level of training of the crew, which led to an uncontrolled descent and collision of the aircraft with the water surface.
The following were identified as contributing factors:
Insufficient training of the crew to perform instrument manoeuvres in order to cope with bad weather under visual flight rules.
The crew's failure to comply with the provisions of the flight manual and the Mi-8 crew operating procedures when the terrain approach warning (GPWS) was activated.
The psychological state of the pilot, associated with a decline, perhaps due to age, of logical and analytical thinking to a below-average level, as well as an excessive propensity for risk, thereby losing situational awareness.
Insufficient preventive work by the airline based on the results of investigations of previous aviation events.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del Mil Mi-8 de Vityaz-Aero de 2021” (revision 162330735, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del Mil Mi-8 de Vityaz-Aero de 2021
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 162330735 · 2024-09-08 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q108121169
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del Mil Mi-8 de Vityaz-Aero de 2021" (page 9997690, revision 162330735), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A tourism operator's helicopter carrying visitors over a nature reserve: a sightseeing flight, counted as air taxi and commuter. The article: "a Mil Mi-8 helicopter belonging to the Russian tourism airline Vityaz-Aero, with 16 people on board, struck the waters of Kurile Lake"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Spanish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.