04 July 2009
Nelya Longortova, Victor Kurtyamov and Natalya Ostanina
Other accident
Three members of a TV crew lost their lives when the boat in which they were returning from a week’s filming overturned on the River Ob.
Nelya Longortova, Victor Kurtyamov and Natalya Ostanina and three other members of the Yamal-Region TV and radio company were travelling in a boat with a crew of three, making a programme about the seasonal flooding of the region and the local fishing industry. According to reports the captain decided to ignore a storm warning and continue the voyage home. The characteristic seasonal weather, short spells of rain with sudden very fast gusts of wind (up to 12 metres a second), resulted in a 3-metre high wave that capsized the boat. Six survived but Longortova, Kurtyamov and Ostanina were drowned and their bodies were not found until 20 July.
