Five people were on board the advanced light helicopter (ALH), a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL Rudra also known as ALH-WSI, when it crashed near Migging in the Upper Siang district at 10:43 a.m. on Friday.
The focus of the Court of Inquiry established to look into the tragedy would be on a ‘May Day’ call indicating a technical or mechanical problem on the army helicopter that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, authorities said. Five people were on board the advanced light helicopter (ALH), a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL Rudra also known as ALH-WSI, when it crashed at 10.43 am near Migging in the Upper Siang district. The Lower Siang district’s Likabali is where the helicopter took off.
After discovering the accident site, which was highly remote and incredibly difficult due to hills with steep gradients and thick vegetation, joint search activities with personnel from the army and air force were immediately begun. While the search and rescue squad had recovered the fatal remains of four personnel by late Friday night, one member of the security force was still missing.
According to Tezpur’s Public Relations Officer (Defence), the pilots have over 600 combined flying hours on the Advance Light Helicopter (Weapon Systems Integrated) and over 1800 service flying hours between them.
“Prior to the incident, Air Traffic Control (ATC) received a MAY DAY call indicating a technical or mechanical issue,” according to the announcement. “This will be the focus of the Court of Inquiry, which was promptly formed to investigate the accident’s causes.”
The names of those deceased in the accident will be revealed once the next of kin have been notified.
This is the second mishap involving an Army helicopter in the state this month.
