Plane Strikes Helicopter, Killing Eight

A cargo plane struck a helicopter Thursday on a runway in northern Russia, setting off a fire that killed eight people.

The helicopter, transporting a pregnant woman and others to a medical clinic, had landed at an airport in Naryan-Mar, but within minutes it was clipped by the wing of a landing military An-12, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Vasily Yarchuk.

The Mi-8 helicopter burst into flames. Its eight passengers were all killed, but the three crew members jumped to safety, he said.

The two pilots and three crew members aboard the cargo plane were injured, two seriously, Yarchuk said.

Visibility at the airport was only about 500 yards, and may have contributed to the accident, he said. The area is 950 miles northeast of Moscow.

The crash comes six days after a huge An-124 military cargo jet slammed into an apartment building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk moments after takeoff, killing 68 people.

Air safety in Russia has declined sharply since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia and other former Soviet republics have seen a series of deadly crashes, usually blamed on poor aircraft maintenance or safety violations.