On 29 July 2022, a

Mil Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Union, Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the ...

helicopter belonging to the Border Police of Georgia crashed during a rescue mission in a mountainous valley near Gudauri, a

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; is the major mountain range of the Caucasus Mountains. It stretches for about from west-northwest to east-southeast, from the Taman Peninsula of the Black Sea to the Absheron Peninsula of t ...

mountain resort in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

's northeast. All eight people on board died.

Accident

On 29 July 2022, a tandem

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched Glider (aircraft), glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a :wikt:harness, harness or in ...

suffered an accident near Gudauri, with the two occupants falling into a deep rocky gorge. The Border Police of Georgia dispatched a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-designed Mi-8 helicopter—piloted by the veteran officer Colonel Zaza Loria—on a rescue mission. The helicopter lost control while hovering over the gorge and crashed, killing all eight people on board, including four crew members, two emergency physicians, and two rescuers. Subsequently, one of the people paragliding, a foreign tourist, was also found dead; the other, injured, was retrieved by ambulance to safety. According to a police report, a

tail rotor The tail rotor is a smaller rotor mounted vertically or near-vertically at the tail of a traditional single-rotor helicopter, where it rotates to generate a propeller-like horizontal thrust in the same direction as the main rotor's rotation. ...

failure might have caused the crash.

Reactions

After the crash, the next day was declared a

national day of mourning A national day of mourning is a day, or one of several days, marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the deat ...

in Georgia. President of Georgia

Salome Zourabichvili Salomé Nino Zourabichvili (born 18March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician, former diplomat, and the fifth president of Georgia – the first female to be elected as president in the country's history. As a result of the constitutiona ...

posthumously awarded the crew, rescuers and first responders with the Medal for Civic Dedication. The accident also reignited a broader discussion about the safety of paragliding business, which remained largely unregulated at the time of the disaster, and the ability of the

Interior Ministry An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

to handle similar incidents with the available equipment and transports.

References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Georgia (country) Gudauri Aviation accidents and incidents in Georgia (country) Accidents and incidents involving the Mil Mi-8 Mtskheta-Mtianeti 2022 disasters in Georgia (country) July 2022 in Georgia (country)