An Army Cheetah helicopter crashed on Thursday in Arunachal Pradesh’s Bomdila. West Kameng district SP BR Bomareddy informed that both the pilots have died in the helicopter crash. The bodies of the slain pilots, identified as Lt Col VVB Reddy and Maj Jayant A, have been recovered from the crash site.
The dead bodies of both are being brought to the nearby hospital, where the final action will be taken. The bodies were found around 4 pm. The army has ordered an inquiry.
In October last year too, a Cheetah helicopter of the army had crashed in the Tawang area, in which a pilot died during treatment.
Defence spokesman Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said that at around 9.15 am on Thursday morning, during an operational sortie near Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh, the Cheetah helicopter of Army Aviation was reported to have lost contact with the ATC. It was later learned that the helicopter crashed near Mandla, west of Bomdila.
On October 5 last year, a Cheetah helicopter of the Army had crashed during a routine sortie at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Two army pilots were injured in this accident, one of whom succumbed during treatment.
The accident took place at Nyamjang Chu near Bap Teng Kang Falls area of Jemithank Circle, forward area of Tawang, during a routine sortie at around 10 am, an army official said.
The helicopter with two pilots was coming on a routine sortie from Surva Samba area.
After getting information about the accident, the relief rescue team reached the spot, then two seriously injured pilots were taken out and taken to the hospital by ambulance.
One of the two pilots, Lieutenant Colonel Saurabh Yadav, died during treatment. This was not the first helicopter accident in Tawang.
In 2017, five IAF crew members and two Army officers were killed after an Air Force Mi-17 V5 helicopter crashed
