Vladivostok (Russia), Aug 20: Authorities in the Russian far east lost contact today with a helicopter carrying a regional Governor and 12 other people, emergency officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter, with three crew members and 10 passengers, was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Severo-Kurilsk on the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean, said Oleg Kulikov, a duty officer at the far east branch of the emergency situations ministry. The helicopter failed to make contact with ground control at the appointed time, and three hours later there was still no word, Kulikov said. A search mission was launched. Igor Farkhutdinov, Governor of the Sakhalin region, which includes the Kurils, was among the passengers, said Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the emergency situations ministry in Moscow. Bureau Report