Military chopper crashes in Arunachal Pradesh, 4 bodies recovered

New Delhi, Oct 21: Four Army personnel were killed in a defence chopper crash in the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday and a search is on for a fifth person, a defence spokesperson said.

"The bodies of the four Army personnel have been recovered from the crash site in a densely wooded mountain area 35 km from the borders with China," he said.

"A military chopper crashed near Singing Village, 25 km away from the Tuting headquarters in the Upper Siang district today. Site of accident not connected by road, rescue team sent," ANI quoted the Defence PRO as saying in a tweet.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju shared the clip of the incident on his social media page and wrote, "Received very disturbing news about Indian Army's Advanced Light Helicopter crash in Upper Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. My deepest prayers. [sic]"

The incident occurred around 10.40 am.

The cause of the crash is not yet known and details are being ascertained, he said.

The advanced light helicopter (ALH) WSI, carrying five Army personnel including two pilots, was on regular sorties when it crashed at 10.43 am around Migging, around 25 km south of Tuting, the district headquarters.

"There were five Army personnel onboard. The mortal remains of four personnel were recovered from the crash site so far. Search for the other person is on, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt Col A S Walia said.

This is the second such incident this month after a Cheetah helicopter of the Indian Army crashed in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh near the boundary with China on October 5.

A joint search and rescue operation by the Army and Air Force was immediately launched in which an MI-17 and two ALHs along with three columns of the Indian Army were deployed and the four bodies were found, he said

The Army chopper, also known as HAL Rudra, had taken off from Likabali in the 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.