A chopper of the Indian Navy crash-landed at the INS Rajali naval base in Arakkonam near Chennai on Monday during a training sortie. The crew is safe no casualties have bee reported as yet.
The incident took place at around 10.30 on Monday morning when a crew took the chopper out for training. According to reports, the Chetak CH442 chopper crashed when the crew was carrying out a dry winching dual sortie manoeuver. Winching is a manoeuvre in which trained personnel descend from the aircraft into the land or water. Although the crew escaped unhurt, damages to the main and the tail rotors of the chopper have been reported.
The Indian Navy is yet to issue a statement on the incident.
The Chetak helicopter is a Chetak Helicopter is a two-ton class helicopter suitable for commuting, cargo or material transport, casualty evacuation, Search and Rescue (SAR), aerial survey and patrolling, emergency medical Services, offshore operations and underslung operations.
This crash comes days after an Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG 27 crashed near Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
In June, a senior IAF pilot Sanjai Chauhan from the Jamnagar IAF station died after his Jaguar fighter plane crashed in Mundra taluk in Kutch district in Gujarat. Sanjai Chauhan was the one who received Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman when she visited the air base a few months before the accident.
Three days after this, another Jaguar IAF plane crashed near the Jamnagar airbase. However, the pilot ejected to safety before the plane crashed.
In April this year, an IAF helicopter crashed in Kedarnath after it hit the perimeter wall of the Kedarnath temple on its way from Guptkashi to Kedarnath. The six people on board the chopper escaped unhurt but the chopper suffered severe damages.