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The body of one of eight people aboard a helicopter that crashed into the sea near Barentsburg was found late Monday about a 130 meters from the wreckage of the aircraft, according to The Governor of Svalbard.
The body was found by a submersible vehicle and workers planned with retrieve it within hours.
“We want to get the dead up as soon as possible,” Gov. Kjerstin Askholt said in a prepared statement.
The Mi-8 helicopter crashed last Thursday while carrying eight Russians from Pyramiden. The wreckage was found Monday about two kilometers from the Barentsburg heliport.
The governor’s office is coordinating the recovery efforts, with about 40 Russians who arrived Monday assisting. A ship arriving from the mainland is expected to raise the helicopter from the seabed Wednesday or Thursday.
Several teams of Russian rescuers dispatched to the crash scene Monday returned to Longyearbyen with no results, according to the Russian news agency TASS. Four groups of rescuers assisted by officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross examined 22 kilometers of the coastline, finding no objects that could be connected with the helicopter.
Russian officials also collected audio logs, images, weather information and interviewed peolple in touch with the flight before it disappeared.
