Army helicopter crash: ‘Clear’ weather, mayday call | All we know so far

All 5 personnel on board lost to crash

Five people were on board the Indian Army Aviation Advance Light Helicopter (Weapon Systems Integrated) – ALH WSI, which was based in Likabali (Assam), when it crashed on Friday at 10:43 am near Migging village in the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, 25 kilometres from the Tuting headquarters. The chopper had taken off from Likabali in the Lower Siang district.

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The deceased Army personnel were identified as pilots Major Vikas Bhambhu and Major Mustafa Bohara, CFN Tech AVN (AEN) Aswin K V, Havildar (OPR) Biresh Sinha and NK (Ppr) Rohitashva Kumar.

What went wrong?

The officials said the weather around Tuting was good for flying operations on Friday and the two pilots had a combined experience of flying for more than 1,800 hours.

“Prior to the crash, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had received a mayday call suggesting a technical or mechanical failure,” a release said. “This will form the focus of the Court of Inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident,” read a statement by the Defence PRO.

A ‘mayday’ call refers to a distress call over radio communication by pilots to the air traffic control in case of emergency.

One in a series of many helicopter accidents

A Lieutenant Colonel from the Army’s aviation wing was killed and his co-pilot suffered serious injuries when their Cheetah helicopter crashed in a forward area close to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh two weeks prior to Friday’s accident involving the ALH in Migging.

According to official statistics, 15 military helicopter accidents involving four ALH, four Cheetah, two ALH (WSI), three Mi-17V5, one Mi-17, and a Chetak resulted in 31 fatalities between March 2017 and December 2021.

(With inputs from agencies)