THREE ARMY MEN KILLED IN CHOPPER CRASH IN BAREILLY
LUCKNOW: Three army officers were killed when an army helicopter crashed in Bareilly district on Wednesday morning, officials said. The Cheetah helicopter took off from Bareilly for a routine sortie. It developed a technical snag and crashed around 8am in Nakatiya, a rural area of Bareilly. An earlier report said it was an air force helicopter, but it was later confirmed to be a 23-year-old army chopper. Major Abhijeet Thapa, 29, Major Vikas Varyani, 29, and Captain Avinash, 26, were killed in the incident.
LUCKNOW: Three army officers were killed when an army helicopter crashed in Bareilly district on Wednesday morning, officials said.
The Cheetah helicopter took off from Bareilly for a routine sortie. It developed a technical snag and crashed around 8 am in Nakatiya, a rural area of Bareilly, and burst into flames.
An earlier report said it was an air force helicopter, but it was later confirmed to be a 23-year-old army chopper. Major Abhijeet Thapa, 29, Major Vikas Varyani, 29, and Captain Avinash, 26, were killed in the incident, a district official said.
While the major rank officials were the pilot and co-pilot, the captain was from the engineering corps, an official said. Senior district and army officials rushed to the site and expedited the operations to pull out the bodies of the officers.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the chopper appeared to be
in trouble moments after lifting off. It soon caught fire and crashed
MAJOR ABHIJEET THAPA, 29, MAJOR VIKAS VARYANI, 29, AND CAPTAIN AVINASH, 26, WERE KILLED IN THE INCIDENT, A DISTRICT OFFICIAL SAID
at the airbase.
Superintendent of Police Rajiv Mehrotra said on Wednesday that it was a test flight that went all wrong.
“It was a test flight of the chopper. The pilot, co-pilot and a flight engineer have died in the incident,” Mehrotra informed.
“What went wrong will come out after the detailed investigation, that is to be conducted by the army authorities,” he added.