IAF chopper crashes in Arunachal, seven dead

ITANAGAR/NEW DELHI: An Mi-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force crashed near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, killing all seven military personnel on board, officials said.

Five IAF personnel, including two pilots, and two armymen were killed in the crash near the remote town of Tawang, close to the China border, around 6.30 am. The chopper had taken off from the Khirmu helipad near Tawang and was on its way to Yangste, said Tawang Superintendent of Police M K Meena said. The Russian manufactured Mi-17 V5 chopper was on an air maintenance mission and was also scheduled to drop off kerosene jerry cans at an Army camp in Yangste, he said.

All the bodies were recovered by a team of the IAF and the Army. The dead have been identified as Wing Commander Vikram Upadhyay, Squadron Leader S Tiwari, Master Warrant Officer A K Singh, Sgt Gautam and Sgt Satish Kumar of the Air Force and Sepoys E Balaji and H N Deka from the Army.

“The rescue operation was carried out at an altitude of almost 17,000 feet above sea level,” Meena said. “All the bodies were brought to Khirmu helipad for medical formalities and flown to Tezpur airbase,” he added.

A team of police and district administration officials have left for the crash site to gather more details. “A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident,” a senior IAF official said in Delhi.

The Mi-17 V5 (domestic designation Mi-8 MTV5) is a military transport variant in the Mi-8/17 family of helicopters. It is produced by Kazan Helicopters, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters. The aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 13,000 kg. It can transport either 36 armed soldiers internally or 4,500 kg of loadon a sling.

(With inputs from PTI)