Russian helicopter with 8 people on board crashes in Arctic Ocean

A Russian helicopter with eight people on board went down into the sea off a settlement on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean on Thursday, Norwegian rescue services said.

The helicopter was reported missing at 3.35 p.m. and was confirmed having gone down at 3.45 p.m. about two to three km from Barentsburg, a settlement on Svalbard, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centers (JRCC) in Northern Norway said on twitter, Xinhua reported.

Two rescue helicopters were now in place in the accident area, but the Russian MI-8 helicopter has not been seen, according to public broadcaster NRK.

The list of passengers has Russian names, with a crew of five and three passengers, the NRK report said.

The helicopter had been flying from Pyramid, a Russian settlement on Svalbard, to Barentsburg, the rescue services said. Barentsburg's inhabitants are almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians.

According to the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, the archipelago is under Norwegian sovereignty, but the exercise of sovereignty is subject to certain stipulations and citizens of signatory countries have equal rights to exploit its natural resources.