East of Mandala, close to the village of Banglajaap, the aircraft’s wreckage was discovered.
“With regret we inform that the pilot and the co-pilot of the helicopter lost thier lives in the accident. An investigation is being ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident,” army released a statement. The two pilots who perished in the helicopter disaster were Lieutenant Colonel VVB Reddy and Major Jayanth A.
At 9 am, the helicopter, which was carrying a lieutenant and a major, took off from Sange village and was its route to Missamari in Assam’s Sonitpur district when the tragic incident occurred.
Around 9.15 am, the operational sortie-flying helicopter lost touch with Air Traffic Control (ATC), according to Lt. Col. Mahendra Rawat.
According to Lt Col Mahendra Rawat, PRO Defense in Guwahati: “An Army Aviation Cheetah helicopter flying an operational sortie near Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh was reported to have lost contact with the ATC at around 9:15 am today. It is reported to have crashed near Mandala, West of Bomdila.”The locals in Dirang discovered the wrecked helicopter on fire and alerted the district authority, according to Rohit Rajbir Singh, superintendent of police, Special Investigation Cell (SIC).”Villagers from Bangjalep at Dirang located the chopper around 12.30 pm. It is still burning,” Singh quoted according to PTI agency.
According to the police officer, there is no mobile service in the region, and the weather is severely foggy with visibility as low as five metres.
It should be noted that the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Army now operate about 200 Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.
The Indian Army is considering acquiring approximately 95 Light Combat Helicopters and 110 Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) in the future as part of raising its overall combat aviation profile, according to Army Chief General Manoj Pande last month.
Source: ABP NEWS