Four killed in Army chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh

A rescue team was soon deployed to the crash site, the Army PRO said.

The PRO later took to Twitter to announce that a joint search and rescue operations of India Army and the India Air Force was launched in which 1 MI 17, two ALHs and 3 columns of the Indian Army have been deployed.

“A total of 5 personnel were on board,the SAR team has recovered the mortal remains of four individuals out of the five till now”, the statement said.

Upper Siang Superintendent of Police Jummar Basar told media persons that the crash site was very remote and said the nearest villages to the crash site was nearly 140 km from the district headquarters at Yingkiong.

Union minister for law and justice Koren Rijiju expressed grief at the incident. “Received very disturbing news about Indian Army’s Advanced Light Helicopter crash in Upper Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. My deepest prayers,” he said.

The Army chopper, also known as HAL Rudra, had taken off from Likabali in Lower Siang district. The HAL Rudra is an attack helicopter manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Army. It is a weapon system integrated (WSI) Mk-IV variant of the Dhruv advanced light helicopter and is the first armed helicopter produced indigenously in India.

Earlier in an Indian Army pilot was killed in a crash, when an Indian Army helicopter flying in the forward area near Tawang – one of India’s last points before China, crashed during a routine sortie.

(With PTI Inputs)