Mid-air collision: Nine killed as Indian choppers collide

The Mi-17 helicopters were flying in close formation over a firing range in Gujarat.

NEW DELHI:

Nine Indian air force personnel were killed on Thursday when two Russian-designed military helicopters apparently collided in mid-air, the Indian military and police said.

Air force spokesman Wing Commander Gerard Galway said the two M1-17 helicopters were “flying in close formation” over a firing range in the western state of Gujarat when they crashed.

“It is likely it was a mid-air collision,” Galway told AFP, confirming that all nine on board the two aircraft had died. Galway said an inquiry would establish exactly how the accident occurred.

Television pictures showed skeletal, charred remains of the MI-17 multi-utility helicopters in what seemed like a sparsely populated area. The wreckage was surrounded by police, firefighters and military officials.

Officials quoted by the media said the crash site was a military area near the Jamnagar airbase in Gujarat, a state bordering Pakistan.

An air official, who did not want to be named, said the two helicopters were practising firing over the range near a military airbase in Jamnagar district when the accident happened.

Jamnagar police chief Harikrishna Patil told AFP by telephone from the accident site that the aircraft appeared to have collided before they came down in cotton fields near a village.

“One of the helicopters also caught fire after hitting a high-tension power cable,” he said.

No casualties or loss of property on the ground was reported. The country’s military has been plagued by often fatal accidents due to obsolete hardware.

More than half of the 872 MiG fighters India bought from Moscow since the early 1960s have crashed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2012.