Russian military helicopter crashes in Moscow, 2 injured

A military helicopter crashed Tuesday afternoon in a district on the edge of Moscow, injuring two people. A law enforcement official said the ejection seats on the twin-seat Kamov KA-52 Alligator attack helicopter activated inadvertently, sending it crashing to the ground near the Vykhino-Zhulebino district in southeast Moscow. An Emergency Situations Ministry official said that flames caused by the crash spread across an area of 20 square meters. This is the second time in two years that a KA-52 helicopter has crashed. Two pilots died in March 2012 after the same model crashed during a training flight near Torzhok in the Tver Region. There have been previous accidents involving the single-seat Ka-50, from which the Ka-52 is derived. A Ka-50 crashed in June 1998 during an air display, killing the base commander at Torzhok. An official accident report said the helicopter’s co-axial rotor blades collided during hard maneuvering. The Ka-50 and Ka-52 are unique among helicopters in having ejection seats. The seats operate after explosives in the rotor head blow off the rotor blades to give the crew a safe exit. The Ka-52 was displayed for the first time on an international platform at the 50th edition of Le Bourget airshow in June.