Four persons die in Army chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh

CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Three persons were killed in an Army helicopter crash in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday morning, a Defence official said.

(Meanwhile, IANS reported that four bodies have been recovered so far.)

The advanced light helicopter, carrying five Army personnel, was on a regular sortie, he said. The incident took place at 10:43 am at Singging near Migging, around 25 km from district headquarters Tuting.

"There were five Army personnel onboard. Three of them died. Two bodies have been recovered, while one has been sighted. Two others are yet to be spotted," the Defence official said.

A rescue team reached the spot and search operation is underway, Tezpur-based Defence spokesperson Lt Col AS Walia said.

Two choppers, one each of Army and India Air Force, have been deployed for the search and rescue operation, he said.

Upper Siang SP Jummar Basar had earlier said that the crash site is a mountainous region, and it would take time for the search and rescue team to reach the spot.

The district police also sent a team to the spot for search operation, the SP said.

The Army ALH-WSI chopper, also known as HAL Rudra, took off from Likabali in the Lower Siang district of the state with five Army personnel onboard.

"Received very disturbing news about Indian Army's Advanced Light Combat helicopter crash in Upper Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. My deepest prayers," Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted.

The HAL Rudra is an attack helicopter manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Army. It is the Weapon System Integrated (WSI) Mk-IV variant of the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).

Rudra is the first armed helicopter being produced indigenously in India.

This is the second incident of an Army helicopter accident in the state this month. A Cheetah helicopter crashed in the Tawang district on October 5, killing one of the two pilots onboard.

Another Cheetah chopper had crashed in March near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The pilot died in that incident, too.

According to records, Arunachal Pradesh had witnessed 13 crashes since 1995. At least 73 persons, including ministers, legislators, senior government officials and pilots, have been killed in air crashes in the North-East during the past one and half decades, of which 47 were killed in Arunachal Pradesh alone since 1995.

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