Mil Mi-14SP crash near Aniva Bay, off Sakhalin, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

The amphibious Mi-14 was taking part in a joint Russian-Japanese exercise simulating a response to an oil spill and aid to stricken shipping in Aniva Bay, off southern Sakhalin. Having landed on the water, it attempted to take off again in a heavy swell. The nose tucked into the swell, the main rotor blades struck the water and shattered, and the helicopter rolled inverted and settled belly-up. Five crew and an eight-member civil aviation rescue team were aboard. All thirteen were recovered, several by Japanese divers from a vessel taking part in the exercise, and survivors were landed at Korsakov. The pilot, who suffered a spinal injury, was flown out by Mi-8 and died on the way to hospital. Russian transport prosecutors opened criminal proceedings, working on the assumption of a technical fault in the airframe or its Klimov TV3-117M engines. The whole sequence was filmed from the Japanese vessel.