ITANAGAR: The Indian Army has initiated a court of inquiry into the crash of its helicopter in Arunachal Pradesh.
The advanced light helicopter (ALH) of the Indian Army, with five Army personnel onboard, including two pilots, had crashed near Migging village in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The crash site has been identified as Singging near the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.
A technical or mechanical failure is suspected to be the likely cause of the helicopter crash.
Prior to the crash, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had received a ‘May Day’ call suggesting a technical or mechanical failure.
“This (technical failure) will form the focus of the court of inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident,” a defence statement said.
The chopper of the Indian Army that crashed was a Rudra advanced light helicopter (ALH).
The helicopter of the Indian Army crashed at 10:43am on Friday in Arunachal Pradesh.
Crash site is around 25 kilometres from the Indian Army’s Tuting headquarters in Arunachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, search operations are underway to locate the mortal remains of the fifth Indian Army personnel, who suspectedly died in the helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh.
The bodies of four Army personnel were recovered on Friday evening from the crash site.
Reportedly, mortal remains of Major Mustafa Bohra (27), Major Vikas Bhambu (27), Sepoy Rohitash Kumar (33) and Craftsman (Engine Technician) KV Ashwin have been recovered.
“It is reported that the weather was good for flying operations. The pilots had more than 600 combined flying hours on ALH-WSI and over 1,800 service flying hours between them. The aircraft was inducted into service in June 2015,” the statement stated.