GUWAHATI: All the seven defence personnel including five from Indian Air Force and two from Indian Army, on board were killed when an Indian Air Force (IAF) M-17-V5 helicopter carrying supplies to an Army post crashed on Friday morning about 130 kilometer away from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh close to India-China border.
A senior police official in Tawang informed that the deceased included two Army personnel and five IAF personnel including the two pilots of the chopper. He said the crash occurred at around 6-30 A.M. on Friday after the chopper had taken off from Khirmur helipad to an Army post with some supplies on board to drop the same at the army post.
A rescue team comprising Army and IAF personnel rushed to the crash site located in a hostile terrain and recovered the bodies. The police official said that the cause of the crash was being investigated. He said the weather was alright in the morning around Tawang at the time of the crash.
The recovered bodies were being brought to Guwahati later in the Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, IAF sources identified the deceased personnel as Wing Commander Vikram Upadhyay, Squadron Leader S Tiwari, MWO A K Singh, Sergeant Gautam and Sergeant Satish Kumar. The two deceased from the Indian Army are Sepoy E Balaji and Sepoy H N Deka. The Indian Air Force has ordered a Court of Inquiry to ascertain the cause of the chopper crash.
The Mi-17V-5 is considered to be one of the world’s most advanced military transport helicopters. In 2016, Russia handed over three Mi-17V-5 to India. Designed to transport cargo inside the cabin and on an external sling, Mi-17V-5 also ranks among the most technically advanced helicopters of the Mi-8/17 type, incorporating the best engineering solutions from previous generations.
The hilly terrain on Arunachal Pradesh has proved to be a death valley for helicopters as fatal crashes have occurred on many occasions over the years. In another crash on July 4, three Indian Air Force pilots were killed during a rescue operation of flood-affected people in the state. The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) had lost contact soon after its take off from Sagalee . The mutilated bodies of inmates Wing Commander Mandeep Singh Dhillon, Flight Lieutenant Pramod Kumar Singh and Sergeant Rajendra Yashwant Gujjar were recovered along with the wreckage of the chopper three days later.
The former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu too had died in a chopper crash near Tawang in 1997. There was at least one instance of fatal accident of Pawan Hans passenger carrying helicopters in Arunachal sky in the past.