IAF copter crashes,one dead,3 missing

An IAF officer was killed and three of his colleagues went missing after an MI-17 helicopter crashed and plunged into river Chenab at Tringal area in mountainous Doda district,around 200 km north of Jammu,on Friday afternoon. A joint team of Air Force,Army and state police,which started rescue operations immediately after the incident,has recovered the body of the officer. Army and police divers have also been called to locate the debris of the helicopter in the Chenab river.

Sources in the IAF said the helicopter,on a regular sortie,was flying low over Chenab when it got entangled into a cable wire of a bridge and crashed into the water reservoir of the Baglihar hydro-electric power project at the hilly Tringal area.