Friday, September 29, 2006 17:43 IST
Ministry of Defence
One Cheetah helicopter of Army Aviation crashed at Nasik Aviation Base in Maharashtra today at approximately 1407 hrs. The helicopter had got airborne from Nasik Aviation Base and was on a routine training-flying mission. Two pilots, Maj Rohit Yadav and Maj S Chakravarty and a technician Cfn Gopi Birlangi were killed. There was no damage to civil property and no individual was injured as a result of air crash. While preliminary indicators suggest technical failure owing to rotor damage, an inquiry has been ordered to investigate the reasons for the accident.
Both the officers had over 450 hours of flying experience individually and were extremely competent pilots. The pilots were undergoing training as flying instructors at the Combat Aviation Training School at Nasik.
The army aviation has carried out total of 75000 hours and 18 months of accident free record in various types of terrain to include hills, forests and high altitude. (PIB)