IAF copter crash-lands in Sikkim; all six safe

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7

Two pilots and four crew members had a narrow escape when a Mi-17V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force crash-landed at an altitude of 13,000 ft in the northern parts of Sikkim on Thursday morning.

The two pilots and four crew members, including  two from the Indian Air Force and two from the Indian Army, have since been evacuated on board another helicopter. Most of those areas still are snowed out.

None of them have any serious injuries, official said.

The helicopter was attached to the IAF base at Bagdogra and forwarded located to Chaten in the Himalayas and was in Northern Sikkim  on Air Maintenance sortie  when it  crash-landed in the remote Dolma Sampa Valley in North Sikkim 260 km north of Bagdogra.

The pilot had contacted Base using a satellite phone – a mandatory requirement for flying in these areas.

Several posts in the Himalayas are ‘air maintained’, supplies and equipment is flown in on helicopters.

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