Tezpur (Assam): Just on Friday, the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), carrying five Army personnel including two pilots, was on regular sorties when it crashed at 10:43 am near Migging, around 25 km south of Tuting in the southern Chiang district of eastern Arunachal Pradesh. The bodies of the four personnel were recovered on Friday evening, while one other was recovered on Saturday from the crash site in a densely wooded mountainous area.
In fact, in the past 12 years, eight helicopters have crashed in the northeastern Himalayan foothills of Arunachal Pradesh, killing a total of 62 people. These include three Pawan Hans helicopters and five Indian Army and Air Force helicopters. It is believed that these accidents are often caused by adverse weather conditions and sometimes by a technical snag.
On November 19, 2010, a helicopter crashed killing 19 people, including one Lieutenant Colonel, while flying to Guwahati from a brigade of the Army in the Tawang district of West Arunachal Pradesh. On April 17, 2011, a Pawan Hans helicopter carrying passengers from Guwahati to Tawang crashed while landing, killing all 17 passengers including two pilots and two children.
On April 30, 2011, Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter lost contact within 20 minutes of taking off from the Tawang helipad and crashed at an altitude of 13,700 feet at Sela Pass. A total of five people, including former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu was killed in the accident. Six days after the crash, ISRO collected satellite images of the Indian Air Force's SU-30 MKI aircraft to locate the crash site. A total of 3,500 security forces from the Army, ITBP, SSB, Arunachal Pradesh Police, locals, and Bhutanese government security forces were deployed in the rescue operation.
Also read: Uttarakhand: Autopsy of helicopter crash victims conducted
On August 4, 2015, an Air Force helicopter crashed in Khunsar in the Tirap district of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, killing a senior Indian administrative officer, Kamlesh Joshi, and two others. In 2017, an Air Force helicopter crashed in the Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh, killing three people. On October 6, 2017, an Air Force MI-17V5 helicopter crashed after taking off from Tawang, killing seven people. The MI-17V5, known as the most advanced military helicopter of the Indian Air Force, was purchased by India in 2016 from Russia with advanced technology combinations.
On October 5, 2022, an Indian Army Cheetah helicopter crashed near the Jemithang Bridge on the Indo-China border near Lumphu in the Tawang district. One Lt. Col. Sourav Yadav was killed in the accident and another is still undergoing treatment.
