Three people also sustained injuries in the incident however it could not be immediately confirmed if the injured were civilians or military personnel as the ISPR Gilgit office, despite repeated attempts, did not respond to phone calls.
“The crash occurred near the Skardu airport during a routine training flight,” ISPR and other sources in Skardu told The Express Tribune by phone.
According to ISPR, the three dead, other than the pilots, were aircrew.
Sources said that the helicopter caught up fire in the air due to a technical fault before crashing on the ground near the airport.
Locals saw the helicopter hovering over the sky during the day.
The crash is the second major incident in the past two months after Giari incident in the Baltistan region where an avalanche buried more than 135 army personnel and civilians.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf have offered condolences over the loss of lives in the incident.
COMMENTS (7)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@ you said it
You yourself admit that we have be using these MI 17 for almost two decades. Than I dont think we should complain if these old helicopters crash. 20 years is not exactly a small period for aviation machines.
@Peeru Shah: Mi-17 is a very solid and stable helicopter, thousands of which serve around the world. They have been used in Siachen by both our and Indian Army for over 2 decades. By no means can you call these as flying coffins. These machines will run for decades if maintained and serviced properly.
This is an unfortunate accident. From the account in Dawn it seems the chopper was on a test flight after it had just been serviced. So there is a high probability that the accident is due to this. An investigation should reveal the real cause.
@Peeru Shah: that doesn't mean that all are 70's stuffs. there you can see still orders are going on (wiki).
source- wiki it may be that PLA stuff.
MI-17 are new helicopter. it caught fire in air means bad servicing.
Crash?