Mi-17 jettisons damaged copter over ‘safety reasons’

New Delhi, August 31

An Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter that was airlifting a damaged civilian helicopter near the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand today had to jettison — or deliberately drop — the copter due to flight safety reasons.

“The crew safely released the load over an unpopulated area, ensuring no damage to life or property,” the IAF wrote on X. An enquiry had been ordered, it said.

An IAF Mi-17 V5 copter was tasked from the Gauchar landing ground to ‘pick up’ the in-operational civil helicopter from Kedarnath. The helicopter belonged to Crystal Aviation Pvt Ltd and had been lying in disuse since its emergency landing in Kedarnath on May 24 after developing a technical snag.

As is the normal military practice, the Mi17-V5 was carrying the other copter as an ‘underslung’ load — when the load is tied with specialised steel wires and airlifted.

After being airborne, the ‘underslung load’ started oscillating. This can happen due to multiple reasons like high winds, which are common in the Himalayas at that altitude.

Once an ‘underslung load’ starts oscillating, it cannot be controlled, IAF sources said. An oscillating load could have led the Mi17-V5 to crash, sources said.

The pilots took a call to jettison the underslung load over an unpopulated area, sources said. Earlier this morning, videos of the underslung civilian copter falling were doing the rounds on X.