Itanagar: Four persons were killed in an Army helicopter crash in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday morning, a defence official said. The advanced light helicopter, carrying five Army personnel, was on regular sorties, 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," 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.
The ill-fated advanced light helicopter took off from Likabali. "The search and rescue (SAR) team has recovered the mortal remains of four individuals out of the five till now. The cause of the crash at this stage is not known. Details are being ascertained," said a statement from the Indian Army.
Upper Siang SP Jummar Basar had earlier said 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 crashed chopper is an attack helicopter manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Also known as HAL Rudra is a weapon system integrated (WSI) Mk-IV variant of the Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) and is the first armed helicopter produced indigenously in India.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju who has been elected from the frontier state said, "Received very disturbing news about Indian Army's Advanced Light Helicopter crash in Upper Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. My deepest prayers," he tweeted. This is the second accident by an Army helicopter in Arunachal Pradesh this month.
A Cheetah helicopter crashed in Tawang district on October 5, killing one of the two pilots onboard. Another Cheetah chopper crashed in March near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The pilot died in this incident, too. According to records, Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed 13 crashes since 1995 and 47 people were killed in them.
