Arunachal Pradesh helicopter crash: Army recovers mortal remains of fifth army personnel

The toll in the Army helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh rose to five with the body of the last missing personnel recovered on Saturday, a defense spokesperson said.

Earlier, the Indian Army has so far retrieved the bodies of four pilots who died after an ALH crashed near Singging village in Arunchal Pradesh. The mortal remains of four deceased people were retrieved by the late evening of October 21.

The deceased Army personnel were identified as pilots Major Vikas Bhambhu and Major Mustafa Bohara, CFN Tech AVN (AEN) Aswin K V, Havildar (OPR) Biresh Sinha and NK (Ppr) Rohitashva Kumar, he said.

Reportedly, the pilots who lost their lives in the crash had a combined record of more than 600 flying hours on the chopper and over 1,800 service flying hours.

The court of inquiry will be formed

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) had also received a May Day call, which hinted at the possibility of technical or mechanical failure. This will form the focus of the Court of Inquiry constituted following the accident to investigate the causes behind the mishap.

Lt Col Walia said, "This will form the focus of the Court of Inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident. Names of the personnel will be released after notification to the next of kin."

The Army helicopter, 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 (ALH) and is the first armed helicopter produced indigenously in India.

Military chopper crashes

This is the second accident involving an Army helicopter in Arunachal Pradesh this month.

A military chopper crashed near the Tuting area in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Siang district on October 21, at around 10:40 am.

Earlier on October 5, this year, an Indian Army pilot lost his life in a Cheetah helicopter crash near Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.

"The Cheetah helicopter flying in forward areas near Tawang crashed at around 10:00 AM during a routine sortie. Both the pilots were evacuated to the nearest military hospital, "Army officials had said.