MOSCOW, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter crash in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region has killed all 18 people on board, the regional emergency services said in a statement on Saturday.
"At 10:20 a.m. (0320 GMT) on August 4, 2018, an Mi-8 helicopter performed a hard landing in Turukhansk district 2 kilometers from the village of Igarka," the statement read.
The helicopter flew 2 km before it crashed. There were 15 passengers and three crew members on board. No one survived, said the statement.
According to preliminary data, the helicopter collided with the external cargo suspension of another helicopter that took off earlier, before it fell, collapsed and burnt, a statement published by Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said.
The helicopter with cargo landed safely after the crew dropped the external suspension, it added.
A task force was set up to establish the causes and conditions of the catastrophe, and the criminal investigators of the Main Directorate of Criminalistics of Russia's Investigative Committee were sent to the scene, the committee said in a statement.
Both black boxes of the helicopter have been found, a source in regional emergency services was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying, adding that the recorders are in a satisfactory condition.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry is sending over a group of An-74 and Be-200 aircraft and a total of 25 people from regional search and rescue centers to the site of the crash, according to the Krasnoyarsk region branch of the ministry.
