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GUWAHATI: The Indian Army aviation wing’s advanced light helicopter had sent a “Mayday” distress call to air traffic control, suggesting a technical snag, before crashing in the Migging area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Siang on Friday morning. All five army personnel on board were killed when the helicopter went down, including two Majors.
“Prior to the crash, the ATC had received a ‘Mayday’ call suggesting a technical or mechanical failure. This will form the focus of the court of inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident.”
The PRO added that as per reports the weather was good for flying. “The pilots had more than 600 combined flying hours on the ALH-WSI and over 1,800 service flying hours between them. The aircraft was inducted into service in June 2015.”
The Army tweeted, “General Manoj Pande #COAS & All Ranks of #IndianArmy salute the #Bravehearts Maj Vikas Bhambhu, Maj Mustafa Bohara, Cfn Aswin KV, Hav Biresh Sinha & Nk Rohitashva Kumar who laid down their lives in the line of duty at #Migging & offer deepest condolences to the bereaved families.”
The defence PRO stated that the mortal remains of the fifth Army man was recovered on Saturday.
“Mayday” is an emergency procedure word used internationally, primarily by aviators and mariners, as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications to signal a life-threatening emergency.
Immediately after the crash on Friday, joint search operations with teams from the Army and Air Force located the crash site.
The ALH, also known as HAL Rudra, carrying the five army personnel, including two pilots, was on a regular sortie when it crashed at 10.43 am on Friday in a densely wooded mountainous area around 35 km from the border with China. The helicopter had taken off from Likabali in Lower Siang district.



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