Two pilots were on board in the Indian Army Aviation Cheetah helicopter that crashed near the Mandala hills area in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, the officials revealed. The search and rescue team of the Indian Army, SSB, and the police personnel have already left the scene.
In a statement, Public Relations Officer of Defence, Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said “Army’s Cheetah helicopter, on an operational sortie, was reported to have lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller at around 9:15 am on Thursday.”
He further added that, “It was reported to have crashed near Mandala, West of Bomdila. The search party has been formed to investigate the matter.”
According to the information given by Arunachal Pradesh Police, an Army chopper lost contact midway and could not be located while it was the route to Missamari from Senge village.
A crashed chopper was discovered around 12:30 p.m. by villagers from Bangjalep under Dirang police station. The authorities revealed that as of then no photos were available as the area had no signal. The weather was too foggy and there was no visibility of 5 meters.
The search operations for pilots are underway and further details in the case are awaited.