Uttarakhand: IAF's Mi 17 chopper crash-lands in Kedarnath; four, including pilot, suffer minor injuries

An Mi 17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force, crash-landed near Kedarnath on Tuesday morning while trying to land far from the Kedarnath shrine. ANI reported that the helicopter caught fire following the collision with the iron girder while trying to land at a helipad. The fire was later brought under control.

#UPDATE Four people including the pilot suffered minor injuries after Indian Air Force's MI-17 helicopter caught fire following collision with an iron girder while landing at helipad near Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand. (The helicopter is not of the Army as mentioned earlier) pic.twitter.com/l59bFVV4eP

— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2018

There were eight people — six passengers, pilot and co-pilot — onboard but all are safe with minor injuries, an official said. The hilly area is quite risky for helicopters. A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident. Congress leader Ashok Gehlot tweeted that he was “relieved to know” that the IAF officials on board were out of danger.

Relieved to know four people, including #IAF pilot are out of danger after cargo helicopter of #IndianAirForce caught fire while landing at helipad near #Kedarnath temple in #Uttarakhand. #MI17 #HelicopterCrash pic.twitter.com/zjVaQWCGpJ

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) April 3, 2018

In October, 2017, an Mi-17 V5 helicopter of the IAF crashed near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, killing seven military personnel. Five IAF personnel, including two pilots, and two army men were killed in the crash near the remote town of Tawang, close to the China border.

The Mi-17 is a military transport variant in the Mi-8/17 family of helicopters. It is produced by Kazan Helicopters, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters. The Mi-17 V5 variant has a maximum take off weight of 13,000 kg. It can transport either 36 armed soldiers internally or 4,500 kg of load on a sling.

On 10 June, 2017, a chopper belonging to a Mumbai-based private aviation company  crashed in Badrinath  while taking off, killing an engineer onboard and injuring two pilots.

With inputs from PTI