Kiev, March 27 (Xinhua) A Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter crashed into the Black Sea Thursday, with 12 of the 13 people on board missing, a government spokesman said.

One person was found alive, he added.

'The helicopter belongs to Ukraine's border guards. It was carrying 13 people. One is found alive, while the others are still missing,' Ihor Krol, a Ukrainian emergency situations ministry spokesman, said.

He said the helicopter took off from an airport in the Black Sea port of Odessa for the nearby Zmeinyi Island at 11.06 a.m.

The cause of the crash was not yet known.