Army helicopter crash lands in Jammu and Kashmir, two pilots killed
- The Indian Army's Cheetah helicopter was on a training sortie in Patnitop, Udhampur
- The incident occured amid heavy fog in the dense-forested area
- Two pilots succumbed to injuries at a hospital
Two pilots were killed after an Indian Army helicopter made a forced landing at Shiv Garh Dhar in Patnitop area along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Tuesday. Police had rushed to the dense-forested area of in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, which was engulfed in fog at the time of the crash.
A Jammu-based defence spokesman said the aircraft, an Army Cheetah helicopter, had crash landed during a training sortie in the tourist resort area of Patnitop. The two pilots critically injured in the crash succumbed to their injuries, the spokesman said.
The army’s Northern Command paid tributes to “Major Rohit Kumar & Major Anuj Rajput who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.”
The incident took place between 10.30 am to 10.45 am, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying. The chopper belonged to the Army Aviation Corps. Last month, an Indian Army helicopter had crashed over the Ranjit Sagar Dam in Kathua district of Jammu & Kashmir.
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The helicopter ALH WSI MK II Rudra crashed on August 3 and the mortal remains of Lt Col AS Baath were recovered from a depth of over 75m on August 15.
A second pilot of the crashed helicopter is still missing with Western Army Commander Lt Gen Ravendra Pal Singh visiting the crash site on September 20 to review the search and rescue operation.
Last October, a Cheetah helicopter of the Indian Air Force made a precautionary landing in Rajasthan’s Jalore district after developing a technical snag
Meanwhile, the Indian Army said on Monday that it had launched a major operation in Jammu and Kashmir to foil the “biggest infiltration attempt by terrorists from across the Line of Control (LOC) in recent years,” NDTV reported. The infiltration attempt was detected on Saturday morning on the fifth anniversary of the Uri attack, officials said, prompting authorities to suspend internet and mobile services in the Uri sector of northern Kashmir.
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