Governor of Sakhalin dead in copter crash

[Neznakomka]

No Survivors Found in Wreckage of Russian Copter
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

MOSCOW, Aug. 23 — The wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared Wednesday carrying the governor of the Sakhalin region in Russia's Far East was found today on a mountainside on Kamchatka Peninsula. There were no survivors among the 20 passengers and crew members.

The body of the governor, Igor P. Farkhutdinov, and those of at least two of his aides have been identified, officials told Russian news agencies. It could be days before all of the victims are known.

President Vladimir V. Putin, in a statement, expressed condolences to the families of those aboard and announced a special inquiry into the crash. Russia's top prosecutor had already begun a criminal investigation into what officials have said were numerous violations of safety standards, including the failure to have a complete passenger manifest.

Until rescuers reached the crash site today, officials had not known exactly how many people were aboard the helicopter when it left an airfield near Kamchatka's capital and flew toward the Kurile Islands.

After three days of searches hampered by foul weather and rugged terrain, the helicopter's wreckage was spotted at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet roughly 70 miles southwest of Kamchatka's capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, according to news reports.

Mr. Farkhutdinov, 53, was an engineer who rose through the Communist Party ranks during Soviet times. Like many parties leaders, he refashioned himself in a newly democratic Russia, serving as mayor of the region's largest city, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, from 1991 to 1995.

He became Sakhalin's governor in 1995, when Boris N. Yeltsin, then the president, appointed him by decree. He was elected in 2000.