India: Army helicopter crashes near Mandala hills in Arunachal, both pilots killed

A Cheetah helicopter of the Indian Army crashed near the Mandala hills area in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday (March 16), killing the pilot and co-pilot on board. The pilots were identified asLieutenant Colonel VVB Reddy and Major Jayanth A.

Taking to Twitter, the Eastern Command of the army said, "Lieutenant General RP Kalita, Army Cdr EC& All Ranks offer tribute to the supreme sacrifice of Lt Col VVB Reddy andMaj Jayanth A, in the line of duty at Mandala, Arunachal Pradesh while carrying out operational flying of Cheetah Helicopter. Indian Army stands firm with the bereaved families."

Earlier in the day, Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Rawat, the public relations officer (PRO) at Defence Guwahati, told the news agency ANI thatthe helicopter was flying an operational sortie near Bomdila and was reported to have lost contact with the ATC at around 9.15 am.

Earlier, the Arunachal Pradesh Police said search and rescue teams of the army, the SSB and the police left for the crash site. However, no visuals were available as the area had no signal.

This incident in Arunachal Pradesh more than two years after 13 personnel of the Indian Air Force (IAF) died after their AN-32 aircraft crashed on June 3, 2019, after taking off from Assam`s Jorhat. The aircraft was headed for Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh when it lost contact with ground authorities at around 1 pm.

After massive search and rescue operations, the wreckage of the aircraft was located by a Mi-17 chopper. The remains of IAF personnel were retrieved on June 20 from Arunachal Pradesh where the aircraft crashed.

On January 28 this year, two fighter jets of the Air Force crashed, killing one pilot and injuring two others, in an apparent mid-air collision while on exercises south of the capital New Delhi. The crash involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30, carrying two pilots, and a French-built Mirage 2000.

Both these aircraft took off from the Gwalior air base, around 50 kilometres east of where they came down.

(With inputs from agencies)

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