BUCHAREST, Romania

Romania’s Defense Ministry announced early Thursday that the wreckage of an IAR-330 Puma helicopter that had been searching for a crashed Romanian MiG-21 fighter jet has been discovered.

Defense Ministry spokesman Constantin Spanu said in a statement on his social media account that the MiG-21, which had disappeared from radar while conducting an air patrol over Romania’s Dobruja region, lost radio contact with the control tower at 8.03 p.m. local time.

Spanu announced that following the crash of the fighter jet, the Puma helicopter, which went to search for the wreckage of the jet at 8.21 p.m., also lost radio contact with the control tower at 8.44 p.m. in the same region.

Noting that search and rescue efforts are continuing for the pilot of the MiG-21, he said they do not have detailed information about the pilot's condition and that seven soldiers in the helicopter had lost their lives.

The accident occurred 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Snake Island, which was occupied by Russia in the first days of its war on Ukraine.