New Delhi. 06 October 2017. Tragedy strikes the Indian armed forces when an Indian Air Force Mi-17 V5 helicopter crashed at around 0659h today after getting airborne from a helipad North of Tawang. This was
the second routine air maintenance sortie of the day for the aircraft at a forward area.
The helicopter was carrying supplies to a forward post of the Indian Army in the hilly terrain. The helicopter crashed close to Dropping Zone and caught fire immediately. Seven defence personnel were onboard, included five Indian Air Force personnel Wg Cdr V Upadhyay, Captain of the aircraft, Sqn Ldr S Tewari, Co-pilot, MWO AK Singh, Flt Gnr, Sgt Gautam Kumar Flt Engr, and Sgt Satish Kumar, Flt Gnr and two Army personnel Sep HN Deka and Sep E Balaji, and all of them sustained fatal injuries during the crash. A Court of Enquiry has been ordered to establish
the cause of the accident.
Heresay is that it was something to do with tail rotor. Some reports talk of drop parachute getting into tail rotor. If true it is very rare and not plausible. What ever be the reason loss of life is always tragic.
With the Air Force Day two days away this is a real dampener on the already low key celebrations this year due to the demise of the Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh last month.
