Published: 6/19/1998

The Polus air company, which owned the Mi-8 helicopter that crashed on 1 June in Antartica, had all the necessary certificates, sources at the Russian Federal Aviation Service told ConCISe. The service "has no claims on the air company in that respect." Polus general director, Pyotr Zadirov, confirmed the availability of all documents for the work in Antarctica. "Being the basic air company of the Russian Antarctica expedition, we have been offering helicopter services for two years. We operated in the Arctic and Antarctica for many years before that," he said. "We satisfied all the requirements of the FAS. This year our work was praised by the heads of the Antarctica expedition, the Arctic and Antarctica scientific-research institute, the captain of the Academician Fyodorov vessel and the head of the Antarctica program," Zadirov noted. "The crews were paid on time. However, the helicopters' equipment was rather worn-out and it is unrealistic to buy new aircraft. The helicopter did not have an expired service life and we had enough spares, but the work at the poles differs from work elsewhere and requires better machinery and newer aircraft," Zadirov added. (IN698.10) (VZ)

Article ID: 197