Indian Army copter crash kills 4 in Arunachal Pradesh

New Delhi, October 21

Four Army personnel, including two pilots, were killed in a helicopter crash in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday morning, a defence official said.

The advanced light helicopter (ALH), carrying five Army personnel, was on a routine sortie and crashed at 10.43 am at Singging near Migging, around 25 km from district headquarters Tuting, the official said. A search is on to locate the fifth Army man.

“A total of five Army personnel were on board the helicopter. The search and rescue teams have recovered the mortal remains of four individuals,” said Tezpur-based Ministry of Defence spokesperson Lt Col Amrinder Singh Walia.

Besides the two pilots, three technicians from other ranks of the Army were in the rear seat of the indigenous ALH-WSI helicopter, made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

This is the fifth fatal crash for the Army Aviation Corps since August last year, leaving eight pilots dead. Three of these involved single-engine Cheetah helicopters and two involved the ALH-WSI.

On October 5 this year, Lt Col Saurabh Yadav was killed while flying a Cheetah in a crash in Arunachal. His co-pilot was injured. In March, a helicopter crashed in the Gurez sector of Kashmir, killing its pilot Major Sankalp Yadav and critically injuring the co-pilot.

On August 3 last year, an ALH-WSI Rudra twin-engine copter crashed into the Ranjit Sagar Dam lake across the Ravi. Lt Col AS Baath and Capt Jayant Joshi lost their lives in the mishap. Their mortal remains were taken out of the lake after weeks of efforts.

On September 21 last year, a Cheetah helicopter crashed near Patni Top in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming the lives of Major Rohit Kumar and Major Anuj Rajput.

For over a decade, efforts to replace the entire fleet of ageing Cheetah helicopters have failed to materialise. The copters are based on a 1950s’ design and several attempts to induct their replacement have failed to fructify over the past 15 years. These helicopters, weighing over 3.5 tonnes, fall in the light utility helicopter (LUH) class. These are the lightest copters in the Army and the Air Force fleet.

Eight Army pilots dead in 14 months

• Aug 3, 2021: Rudra copter crashes into Ranjit Sagar Dam lake, killing two officers
• Sept 2: Cheetah copter crashes in J&K, 2 Majors die
• March 11, 2022: Copter crashes in Gurez sector, Major dies
• Oct 5: Copter crash near Tawang in forward area of Arunachal leaves Lt Col dead
• Oct 21: Two pilots among four die in crash in Arunachal