An Indian Air Force (IAF) MI-17 helicopter crashed at Bomdir near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, killing all 12 defence personnel on board. The victims included an Army official of the rank of lieutenant colonel and 11 IAF personnel, including two pilots.
IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Ranjib Sahoo, based in the Eastern Air Command headquarters in Shillong, told The Hindu that all the bodies have been retrieved from the crash site, about 10 km from Tawang.
A court of inquiry has been ordered.
Defence sources said the chopper, bound for Guwahati, crashed minutes after it took off from the helipad of the Army Brigade Headquarters in Tawang at 12.04 p.m. It was on an air maintenance sortie.
Keywords: Tawang chopper crash
Comments:
I think this is a sad tragedy. We need a seperate panel to monitor such sensitive happenings in our country and counter warn early of such incidents using modern weather/pilot monitors, etc.
very unfortunate. India needs to seriously think about modernizing our machines. sticking on to vintage Russian equipment will cause more deaths than what we might have to sacrifice in a war.
India will never upgrade its vintage machine because none of the ministers' and big shots' wards are in defence services. By the time our leaders wake up on these issues todays technology will become obselete.
Very sad tragedy !!!
Its very bad news for us. Indian government should take care of our mechanism deeply. Because defense personals are also human being like us. I urge our government please take care of this.