Bodies of chopper crash victims sent to Rawalpindi

MANSEHRA:

Rescue officials recovered the bodies of all the victims of Thursday’s military chopper crash and shifted them to CHM Abbottabad for DNA tests, police said on Friday.

At least 12 people, including two crew members and a medical team, were killed when a MI-17 helicopter crashed on the hilly range of Koh-e-Bhaingra near Mohar village in Lassan Nawab area on Thursday afternoon.

“It hovered over Lassan for a few seconds before exploding on the hill”, a resident of the Mohar village Dilawar said.

He believes that the pilot failed to judge the foggy weather on the hilltop, home to a thick forest.

Khwas, another resident of the same village, explained that although the crashing site was a three-hour walk away, the villagers reached for the rescue late by which time the helicopter had burnt.

The villagers, he said, were later joined by military troops and police personnel and after a 12-hour operation they recovered the bodies.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2015.