Russia Raises Mi-24 From Seabed in Black Sea

The Russian military has revealed the details of the loss of a Mi-24 attack helicopter that disappeared last year while hunting for Ukrainian maritime drones.

The footage of the recovered wreckage was published by a Russian blog associated with army aviation.

On April 10th, 2024, the Russians raised a Mi-24VP ‘39 red’ helicopter with registration number RF-34200 to patrol the sea area near Sevastopol and repel an attack by Ukrainian maritime drones.

At 3:00 a.m., the four-person crew took off to perform a combat mission and returned to the airfield in half an hour. At 3:40, the plane ‘disappeared from the radar’ and stopped communicating.

A day later, on April 11th, a team of divers found the wreckage of the sunken helicopter with the bodies of four crew members at a depth of 15 meters.

Telegram channels affiliated with Russian military aviation reported that divers had found no traces of external influence during the examination of the wreckage, refuting the version of an anti-aircraft strike. The possible version at the time was that the aircraft had malfunctioned.

Four crew members were killed in the crash:

• Commander – Lieutenant Aziz Shayakhmetov, 28 years old
• Pilot-operator – Lieutenant Tokarchuk Nikita Viktorovich, 24 years old
• Flight engineer – Lieutenant Ivan Vladimirovich Sepanin, 38 years old
• Flight gunner – Junior Sergeant Solovey Aleksandr Andreyevich, 30 years old

It is noteworthy that the crew and the helicopter were transferred to the combat zone from the 396th Mixed Regiment of the Baltic Fleet due to the intensification of Ukrainian maritime drones. In Crimea, they were based at the Kacha air base.

Last April, Militarnyi reported the loss of this aircraft, citing erroneous information about the loss of a Ka-27 naval helicopter from a Ukrainian Navy spokesman.

As a reminder, in 2024, the Ukrainian military used naval drones with anti-aircraft weapons for the first time in the Black Sea, shooting down a Russian Mi-8 helicopter with a missile.

The fired R-73 missile hit the enemy board with shooters engaged in intercepting maritime targets near Cape Tarkhankut.

Also in January of this year, in occupied Crimea, Russians convicted their air defense officer who shot down a Russian army Mi-8 helicopter instead of a Ukrainian drone.