Uttarakhand: An Mi 17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force, in an attempt to land safely and far away from the Kedarnath temple, had to crash land near the shrine on Tuesday morning. According to a report, the accident occurred due to the helicopter coming in contact with an iron girder while trying to land at a helipad and caught fire. But immediately after the crash the fire was brought under control.

There were a total of eight people onboard – six passengers, pilot and co-pilot. All were safe after the crash land and escaped with minor injuries, according to an official. To ascertain the main cause of the accident, a court inquiry has been ordered. Congress leader Ashok Gehlot expressed his relief over twitter when he wrote “relieved to know” that the IAF officials on board were out of danger.

In somewhat similar accident back in October 2017, an Mi-17 V5 helicopter belonging to the IAF crashed near Tawang of Arunachal Pradesh killing seven military personnel. The victims included five IAF personnel, including two pilots and another two army men. The site of the crash was the remote town of Tawang, very close to the China border.

The Mi-17 is a military transport variant from the Mi-8/17 family of helicopters. It is a Russian built helicopter offered by the Kazan Helicopters. The Mi-17 V5 variant has a maximum take off weight of 13 tons. It has the ability to transport either 36 armed soldiers by its internal capacity or can carry 4,500 kg of load on a sling.

And in another accident, a chopper owned by a Mumbai-based private aviation company crashed in Badrinath while taking off and an engineer onboard was killed.

India is mostly dependent on Russian helicopters for having bilateral military understanding right from the time before the cold-war era. India and Russia have cooperated time to time on many bilateral interests, from industrial cooperation to technological innovation. After that it also started dealing with United States for its military needs, but for advanced technology.

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