TAWANG/ NEW DELHI: A Lieutenant Colonel of the Indian Army was killed in an accident on Wednesday while a Cheetah helicopter of the Army Aviation, which the officer was flying in the forward area near Tawang crashed on Wednesday at around 10:00 AM. The helicopter was on a routine sortie.
Lt Col Amrinder Walia, Defence PRO Tejpur said, “Both the pilots were evacuated to the nearest Military Hospital. With regret we inform that one of the pilots who were critically injured succumbed to the injuries during treatment. The second pilot is under medical treatment.
The cause of the crash at this stage is not known. Details are being ascertained, Walia added.
This is the second such accident this year involving the Cheetah Helicopters with another one crashing in the Gurez Sector in North Kashmir in March this year. In that accident also the pilot was killed and the co-pilot was critically injured. It was on a mission to evacuate an ailing soldier from a forward post.
The fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters is reaching the end of their total technical life by the end of 2023. France, the Original manufacturer of these helicopters has already retired them from service. Chetak is the upgraded version of Cheetah.
These helicopters were inducted in the 1960s and 1970s and these form the bulk of the fleet in operation with the Indian military with around 400 of them in service. The Army operates more than 200 of these. The five seater helicopter is designed for operation over a very wide range of weight, centre of gravity and altitude conditions. It is versatile, multi role, multipurpose, highly maneuverable and rugged in construction.
#IndianArmy #LtGenRPKalita #ArmyCdrEC & All ranks offer tributes to the supreme sacrifice of Lt Col Saurabh Yadav in the line of duty on 05 Oct 2022 while flying a #CheetahHelicopter near #Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. #EasternCommand offers deepest condolences to the family. pic.twitter.com/lhC6c0jlf0
— EasternCommand_IA (@easterncomd) October 5, 2022