Guwahati: The rescue effort has been completed after recovering all five bodies of the five army personnel who perished in the chopper crash in the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
“Search and rescue mission concludes with the recovery of the fifth and last body, said the Defence PRO, Tezpur on Saturday.
The advanced light helicopter (ALH), which was on a routine mission and had departed from Likabali in the Lower Siang region at 10.43 am on Friday, was carrying five Army troops, including two pilots.
The dead of four Army servicemen were found at the crash scene on Friday evening, and today’s search for the fifth person’s remains was successful.
The jawans has been identified as Maj Vikas Bhambhu, Maj Mustafa Bohara, Aswin KV, Biresh Sinha and RohitAshva Kumar.
The exact cause of the crash is still not known and details are being ascertained.
A court of inquiry has been established to look into the disaster and will concentrate on the “May Day” call that Air Traffic received.
The Air Traffic Control (ATC) had received a ‘may day’ call right before the crash, suggesting a technical or mechanical failure, the Army said in a press release.
“This will form the focus of the Court of Inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident,” the statement further read.
The PRO in a statement also said that the pilots had more than 600 combined flying hours on the Advance Light Helicopter (Weapon Systems Integrated) and over 1800 service flying hours between them, reported the news agency.
On October 5 of this year, a Cheetah helicopter crash near Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, claimed the life of an Indian Army pilot.