Bad weather delays search for Progress M-12M fragments until Saturday

Deputy head of the agency's search department Alexander Dvurechensky told Itar-Tass that low clouds did not allow a helicopter to take off. The helicopter was supposed to fly over the eastern and western outskirts of the village of Balykcha in the Republic of Altai where rocket fragments might have fallen.

Rain, low clouds and fog make the aerial monitoring impossible on Thursday, as well.

The aerial search started on August 31. Land teams questioned shepherds, foresters and other possible eyewitnesses. No fragments were found, which might prove the theory that the rocket fragments burned in the atmosphere.

Daily tests of soil and water for rocket fuel and kerosene bring negative results. The radiation level is normal, chief public health official of the Altai Republic Leonid Shchuchinov said on Thursday.

Representatives of the Federal Space Agency and academic institutes of Siberia and Moscow are engaged in the aerial monitoring.

Researchers of the Moscow State University left the expedition on Tuesday for testing samples of Altai soil and water for possible traces of rocket fuel at their laboratories. Up till now daily tests of soil and water have proven negative, head of the monitoring center Alexander Puzanov told Itar-Tass. "We take the search in the Altai zone very seriously although we think that Progress M-12M burned in the atmosphere before it could reach the ground," he said; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass.

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