Five Air Force officers and two Army personnel killed in IAF chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh
The incident took place about 12-15 km off the China border.
According to the reports, the Mi-17 V5 chopper of the IAF crashed in the Topugarh area, about 130-km from Tawang, bordering China, at around 6-10 am, killing all the seven on board.
A top official of IAF said seven people- five of them IAF officers and two army personnel-were on board.
“The chopper took off around 5-10 am from Khirmu helipad and it crashed at around 6-10 am in the high-altitude of 17000 ft in the Topugarh area near Yangchi, about 30-km away from Tawang due to technical snag,” the top IAF official said.
The top IAFofficial said the chopper was on a maintenance mission for delivering kerosene jerrycans.
The Arunachal police have confirmed that all bodies have been recovered.
“IAF personnel Wing Commander Vikram Upadhay, Squardon Leader S Tiwari, MWO AK Singh, Sgt. Gautam, Sgt. Satish Kumar and Indian army officials Sep. E Balaji, Sep. HN Deka were on board of the chopper and they were not survive in the incident,” a top official of Arunachal Police said.
The authorities have ordered a court probe into the crash.
In May, 2017, two IAF pilots were killed after a Sukhoi - 30 fighter jet crashed in a remote area along Assam - Arunachal Pradesh border.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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