Chetak helicopter crashes, 2 Army officers killed

Nashik (Mah), Feb 2 (PTI) A Chetak helicopter of theArmy today crashed in a residential area here killing twoofficers but there was no casualty on the ground.

The helicopter, which on a routine sortie had takenoff from Gandhinagar for Army Aviation Training School here,crashed after hitting a bungalow in Jachak Nagar area at 0855hours, army and police officials said.

"Nobody was present in the bungalow at the time ofthe crash and the house also did not suffer any major damage,"police officers said.

The victims were identified as Major Atul Garje andCaptain Bhanu Das of Army aviation base in Jodhpur, Armysources said.

The bodies of the two officers were extricated fromthe mangled remains of the helicopter by fire brigade and Armypersonnel.

Nasik District Magistrate P Velasani said there was nocivilian casualty and the helicopter as per the preliminaryinvestigation crashed due to possible technical failure.

"All we can say is that both the pilots on board aredead. The helicopter crashed in a civilian area and there isno civilian casualty. Investigations are on," he said. PTICORR VM AD SC