According to him, it established that the helicopter was flying at a tree-top altitude and caught on a power transmission line with its tail boom. "Discovered in course of examining the helicopter wrecks were wire fragments", said the agency's interviewee.
The Mi-24 crashed during a scheduled reconnaissance flight in Chechnya in the vicinity of the town of Alkhan-Kala.
Chief of the Russian Air Force's press service Colonel Alexander Drobyshevski earlier told RIA Novosti that the two Mi-24 helicopters took off from the Alkhan-Kala airfield for reconnaissance. At 15.35 Moscow time, the crews lost contact. The lead-helicopter turned back and started search of the Mi-24, which was found burning on the ground an hour later.
"The crash killed commander of the crew captain Sergei Zaleznitski, 33, and pilot Mikhail Korotnya, 23", said Col. Drobyshevski.
