Soyuz spacecraft's search and rescue helicopters

Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft with Expedition 30 crew members landed at Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on Apr. 27, 2012, when the capsule brought Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin back to Earth from more than five months on the International Space Station.

A fleet of Russian Mil-Mi 17 Hip helicopters provided search and rescue support to the team tasked to get crew members out of the spacecraft, as shown in the following set of picture released by NASA.

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.