Arunachal chopper crash : Mortal remains of defence personnel sent to their native places
A top Defence official said that, the mortal remains of the seven soldiers have been sent to their native places with full military honours from Tezpur military airport.
The Mi-17 V5 chopper of the IAF crashed at Topugarh area about 130-km from Tawang near China border at around 6-10 am on Friday.
The chopper took off around 5-10 am from Khirmu helipad and crashed from a technical snag around 6-10 am in the high-altitude of 17000 ft at Topugarh area near Yangchi, around 130-km away from Tawang along China border.
The five IAF personnel killed are Wing Commander Vikram Upadhay (pilot, hailing from New Delhi), Squardon Leader Shishir Tiwari (hailing from Indirapuram Ghaziabad), Master Warrant Officer AK Singh (hailing from Mubarakpur village in Bihar’s Chhapra district), Sgt. Gautam Kumar (hailing from Ailum village in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district), Sgt. Satish Kumar (hailing from Kasni village in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district) and Indian army officials Sep. E Balaji (hailing from Neelankori in Chennai) and Sep. HN Deka (hailing from Paghali village in Assam’s Nagaon district).
Following the incident, the authorities have ordered a court investigation.
Arunachal Pradesh witnessed six similar chopper and fighter jet crash incidents in past seven years.
On November 19, 2010, a Mi-17 chopper of the IAF crashed close to Tawang region at Bomdir claiming the lives of 19 people were on board.
On April 19, 2011, a Mi-17 Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in Tawang claiming the lives of 17 people.
On April 30, 2011, a 5-seater single engine Pawan Hans chopper carrying former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu crashed and five days later the bodies of five people were recovered from dense forest area under Tawang region.
On the other hand, a Pawan Hans chopper went missing after taking off from Khonsa in Tirap district with Deputy Commissioner Kamalesh Joshi and two pilots on board along with Assam border on August 12, 2015 and later their bodies were found from dense forest area.
In this year, two pilots of IAF died after a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet crashed near the Assam-Arunachal border on May 25.
On July 4, a chopper of IAF went missing near Sagalee and later four bodies including three IAF and one IRBn personnel were recovered.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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