Russian helicopter crash claims another victim

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- A soldier injured when a Russian transport helicopter crashed in Chechnya last week died in the hospital, authorities said Monday, raising the toll in the nation's worst military air disaster to 117.

A private, Roman Stepanov, died in a military hospital in Rostov-on-Don late Saturday or early Sunday, the Interfax news agency quoted the head of the group charged with taking care of the victims as saying. Maj. Gen. Alexander Serov, a deputy commander of Russian forces in the region, confirmed the death toll had risen to 117. The remaining 30 survivors were injured, and some remain in grave condition.

The Mi-26 helicopter went down Aug. 19 in a minefield outside Khankala, Russia's main military headquarters in Chechnya with 147 people on board, including contract soldiers, conscripts, an army nurse and her child.

Citing unnamed sources in the commission investigating the crash, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported Monday that the commission concluded a portable anti-aircraft missile was used to down the huge helicopter. However, the head of the commission and a top prosecutor both later said the cause had not yet been determined for certain.

"All allegations to the effect that the cause of the air crash is known and that it was a missile strike are premature," Interfax quoted Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky as saying. Fridinsky had confirmed last week that part of an anti-aircraft missile system had been found close to the crash site.