The head of the rescue expedition told about the helicopter crash at Victory Peak

While trying to rescue Natalia Nagovitsina, a Russian woman stuck on Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan, a helicopter with a rescue team crashed. Alexander Semenov, the head of the first organized rescue expedition, told Izvestia about this on August 23.

"On August 16, our six-person team flew an Mi-8 helicopter to the highest possible altitude in order to come to the aid of this group. <...> When trying to land at an altitude of about 4,9 thousand meters due to weather conditions, due to the state of the snow cover, unfortunately, our board suffered a hard landing, in other words, we fell," he said.

According to him, all those in the helicopter were injured, but they were able to help two climbers from the same group where Nagovitsina was.

Semenov said that the Russian woman tried to descend from Victory Peak with her partner Roman, but the breakdown occurred while on the ridge.

"On the descent, at the most dangerous place, the place is called a Knife — it is a sharp ridge, falling from which to the left or to the right, threatens to fall to a height of two kilometers. It's very dangerous," the climber said.

As Semenov pointed out, it was at this site that two disruptions occurred. The second one is probably due to a broken leg in the ankle area of Natalia. Semenov added that Roman managed to get her down to a large rock, which climbers call a Bird.

In addition, at the moment, Russian citizen Batuev Bair, who was among the rescuers, needs a recumbent flight to Moscow and transportation to the Sklifosovsky Institute. In Karakol, he was diagnosed with a compensated fracture of the 12th vertebra. At the same time, there are no beds on the nearest flights. The editorial board of Izvestia appealed to the Russian Embassy in Kyrgyzstan to provide assistance to the victims.

For more information, see the "Final program with Peter Marchenko" this Sunday, August 24, on REN TV.

The fact that 47-year-old Nagovitsina was stuck at Victory Peak was reported on August 19 in the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kyrgyzstan. She broke her leg during the descent and has been at altitude for more than a week. Vera Belikova, the administrator of the Karkyr base camp, said that Nagovitsina is a very strong and calm person. She has already had experience of climbing mountain peaks in the past, and many climbers know her.

Dmitry Grekov, the head of the Yuzhny Inylchek base camp, reported on August 23 that it was currently impossible to get the climber from Victory Peak. He added that not a single person had been evacuated from Victory Peak since 1955. On the same day, the head of the rescue operation, Vitaly Akimov, said that the operation to rescue Nagovitsina might not be resumed. The remaining groups began to withdraw from work.

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