GUWAHATI: The mortal remains of Havildar (Opr) Biresh Sinha, who perished in the Indian Army chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday (October 21), arrived at his native village at Ratabari in Karimganj district of Assam.
Even as Havildar Sinha's mortal remains, contained in a coffin, arrived at his native village on Sunday evening, Manipur- based rebel outfits MNRF and PLA claimed to have shot the chopper down.
Meanwhile, the search for the missing black box of the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) was being conducted at full swing near the crash site at Singging.
An army aviation wing's Rudra ALH, which took off from Likabali in West Siang district on Friday morning, crashed at around 10:43 AM near Migging in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The advanced light helicopter, carrying five Army personnel, was on a regular sortie when the incident took place, leading to the crash at Singging near Migging, around 25 km from district headquarters Tuting.
The army personnel who lost their lives in the chopper crash were identified as Major Vikas Bhambhu, Major Mustafa Bohara, CFN TECH AVN (AEN) Ashwin KV, Havildar (OPR) Biresh Sinha, and NK (OPR) Rohitashva Kumar.
While the remains of four of the crew members were recovered at the crash site, in a heavily forested and inaccessible hilly location, on the evening the same day, the fifth victim's body was discovered the next day.
Lt Col A S Walia, Defence spokesperson, informed that the pilots of the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) had radioed in a 'Mayday' call just before the crash, leading to the assumption that a potential technical or mechanical issue occurred in the chopper just before it went down.
The Army launched a massive search operation on Sunday to locate the missing 'black box' of the ill-fated chopper. The black box will provide investigators with the data required to establish the reason for the crash.
Members of the 21 Para (Special Force), based in Jorhat, Assam, were airdropped near the crash site on October 22 to recover the black box from the crash site near Migging, which is located only around 35 kilometres from the Chinese border.
However, in an unexpected development in the helicopter crash story, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and Manipur Naga Revolutionary Front (MNRF) claimed responsibility for shooting down the chopper, in a press release that's gone viral.
In the press release, Manipur-based militant outfits MNRF and PLA stated that their cadres have shot down the Advanced Light Rudra combat helicopter of the Indian Army, in a joint operation in the Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh killing 7 senior officers.
The outfit even claimed that the route of the Indian-made Advanced Light Rudra was ascertained two days ago by its cadres and it was targeted in a jointly ambush by MNPF and PLA at 10 AM as soon as the helicopter reached the planned target area. The cadres are said to have fired RPGs and mortars to destroy the attack helicopter.
The statement went on to state, "This is our small message to the Indian terrorist army and the Hindutva Modi government. If India does not withdraw its army from other states including Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu Kashmir, then there will be Hindutva soldiers in every street of the state.
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