Chopper crashes in Bavdhan, 3 killed: Aviation Ministry crash probe unit to collect components, black box from site

Three people were killed when the helicopter crashed on Wednesday morning in Bavdhan area of Pune amidst dense fog minutes after the take off. The deceased pilots have been identified as Wing Commander Girish Kumar Pillai (Retd), 57 and Wing Commander Paramjeet Singh, 62 both Indian Air Force veterans and the flight engineer Pritamchand Bharadwaj, 53, who had retired from the Indian Navy.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Vishal Gaikwad said, “After the incident, we had registered a case of accidental death at Hinjewadi police station. An inquiry has been initiated in the case. We will investigate the sequence of events leading to the incident. After the crash, we had cordoned the area for the AAIB to conduct its probe.”

A senior police officer said, “An AAIB technical team has reached Pune. On Wednesday, they had started the process of collecting the components from the crash site that may assist in the investigation, samples from various spots and the flight recorder. Once the AAIB report is obtained, we may consider it in our inquiry based on its findings.”

State NCP president Sunil Tatkare was supposed to fly by chopper to his residence in Sutarwadi, Raigad from Mumbai. “The chopper was slated to come to Mumbai and take me to my residence in Raigad district,” Tatkare had told Express on Wednesday. Tatkare had used the same chopper to go to Beed on Tuesday where he attended the Jansaman rally of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The locals had told the police that there was dense fog when the crash took place.

Police had said that Bharadwaj hailed from Bilaspur district in Himachal Pradesh and had been living at Kharghar in Mumbai. Wing Commander Pillai hailed from Kerala and had been residing in Hyderabad. Paramjeet Singh hailed from Dwarka area of Delhi.

Autopsies were performed on the three at Sassoon General Hospital. Initial findings of the autopsies showed head injuries and multiple fractures. Pillai and Singh had superficial burns, Sassoon authorities had said.