A technical or mechanical fault could be the likely cause of the Army chopper crash that killed five personnel in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Siang district on October 21.
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According to a Defence statement, the Air Traffic Control concerned had received a Mayday call from the pilots prior to the crash, suggesting a technical or mechanical failure.
"It is reported that the weather was good for flying operations. The pilots had more than 600 combined flying hours on the ALH-WSI (advanced light helicopter-weapon systems integrated) and over 1,800 service flying hours between them," the statement said.
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The aircraft was inducted into service in June 2015, it added.
Five soldiers who were killed in the copter crash. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
"This (technical failure) will form the focus of the court of inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident," the statement said.
A Defence spokesperson based in central Assam's Tezpur said the names of the five personnel on board the ill-fated ALH-WSI will be released after the notification to the next of kin.
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The Indian Army Aviation chopper based at Likabali (Assam) crashed at Migging, south of nearest town Tuting in Upper Siang district at 10:43 am on Friday.
The search and rescue team comprising the Army, the Airforce, the police and locals retrieved the mortal remains of four personnel from the crash site on Friday. The fifth body was retrieved Saturday afternoon.
The five Army personnel were identified as Major Vikas Bhambhu, Major Mustafa Vohara, and jawans Aswin K.V., Biresh Sinha and Rohitashva Kumar.