Army chopper crashes in Arunachal; Lt Col and a Major said to be on board

The crash site is located at Banglajab area near Mandala Top

REPORTED BY PREM CHETTRY

An army chopper crashed in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng after it lost contact with the Air Traffic Control this morning.

The Army Aviation Cheetah helicopter flying an operational sortie near Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh reported to have lost contact with the ATC at around 09:15 AM, as per an army statement.

West Kameng SP B Bharat Reddy spoke exclusively to Northeast Live and shared more details into the chopper crash incident.

He said,”At around 10:30-11 AM we received information that a chopper was enroute towards Missamari from the Senge village near Sela, it had taken off from there. It was going to Missamari. But, in between it went off grid and no contact could be made. We received this information around 11 AM and after that we had circulated messages through Whatsapp to the civilians (to help in tracing the missing chopper). The Army, SSB as well as others were already engaged to locate the chopper.”

West Kameng SP B Bharat Reddy gave out more details and said,”Around 12:30 PM we received information that in Banglejapp area which is near Naga GG Lubrang (near Mandala Top), the crashed chopper was located there by the civilians.”

The police official informed that since there is no signal from that place the civilians are sending messages in whatever way they can. “Our teams are on the way to the rescue site. One team from the Army has almost reached the spot. They are the closest and once they reach we will get more information,” SP Reddy added.

Meanwhile, the West Kameng SP also added that,”Till now we have got information that at first the chopper had taken off from Bomdilla and it was going towards Tawang. Since there is low visibility in tawang today becuase of which it landed in Sengei and the officers (Lt Col and a Major) who were being transported, had deboarded and moved ahead by road. Meanwhile, the chopper alongwith the 2 pilots who were supposed to return to Missamari went off grid.”

Meanwhile, both the pilots Lt Col VVB Reddy and Maj Jayanth A have lost their lives in the crash.

Earlier, in October 21, 2022 4 defence personnel were killed and one was reported missing after the Dhruv advanced light helicopter of the Army crashed in a remote area of Upper Siang district of the frontier state.

Prior to this on October 5, an Indian Army Cheetah helicopter had crashed near Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang area. Two pilots were onboard the helicopter. Both the pilots were evacuated for treatment to the nearest military hospital. Out of them one of the pilots succumbed to his injuries.

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