Russian plane joins search for missing tourists
Updated: 2007-09-12 15:13
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| A Russian cargo-transport plane touches down at the Hotan Airport in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on September 11, 2007. The plane, carrying 40 Russian search and rescue crew and three Chinese experts, is to join the search for six Russian tourists reportedly missing for nine days in a canoeing trip in the region. [Xinhua] |
The IL-76 cargo plane carried 40 Russian search and rescue crew, three Chinese experts, a light rescue helicopter, an off-road vehicle and other equipment.
The Russian personnel were discussing the rescue plan with Chinese rescuers, said a member of the Russian team after the aircraft landed in Hotan, southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Six Russian tourists failed to show up to meet their Chinese interpreter in Hotan as scheduled on Sep. 2 after they began canoeing on the Yurungkax River in mid-August.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said in Beijing on Tuesday, "China has closely watched this issue and will work with the Russian experts to find the missing people."
Around 1,100 Chinese armed police, herdsmen and farmers have been mobilized to search for them, but so far they have found no trace of them.
On Tuesday, a Chinese military helicopter with 12 rescuers aboard carried out a four-hour search but failed to locate the missing Russians after it flew about 500 km from the upper reaches to the lower reaches of the river, where they are believed to have gone missing.
The six Russians were identified as Vladimir Smetannikov, Sergey Chernik, Andrey Pautov, Dmitry Tishchenko, Ivan Chernik and Alexander Zverev, with the youngest aged 25 and the oldest 47.
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