Two pilots including 6 IAF Officers, Civilian died in Mi-17 chopper crash near Srinagar airport

Two pilots including 6 IAF Officers, Civilian were killed on Wednesday after an Indian Air Force M-17 chopper crashed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district. The chopper crashed due to technical reasons, officials said.The crash took place in the backdrop of heavy shelling and firing from across the border on a day IAF fighter jets crossed the Line of Control and destroyed a vast terror camp within Pakistan in a pre-dawn strike on Tuesday.

The chopper crashed close to the Srinagar airport in an open field near Garend Kalaan village in Budgam around 10 am. The site of crash is 7 km from the Srinagar International Airport, police said. The chopper broke into two and caught fire immediately. Both pilots died in the incident.

Airports in Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar and Leh – close to the border with Pakistan – were shut temporarily. All airspace at Jammu, Srinagar and Leh, close to the border with Pakistan, were shut down today, sources say. The order on shutdown of airports has been withdrawn.

Visuals showed the wrecked fuselage of the IAF chopper in flames and a large number of villagers standing around it.

The helicopter, a Russian made Mi-17, crashed in an open field near Garend Kalaan village in Budgam at 10.05 am.
The Mi-17 chopper broke into two and caught fire immediately, the officials said.