Four Armymen killed in copter crash

Four Army personnel were killed in a Dhruv helicopter crash in north Sikkim near the Sino-India border, days after a Pawan Hans chopper went down in the northeast claiming 17 lives.

Wreckage of the advanced light helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, which had gone missing on Thursday, was traced in the Shiv Mandir area by Army choppers at 9.30 a.m on Friday and ground parties reached the spot an hour-and-a-half later, Eastern Army Command sources said.

The bodies of two pilots and two soldiers were found at the spot, they said.

“Though it seems that the helicopter had crashed due to the inclement weather in the region, a Court of Inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the reasons behind it,” they said.

The sources said the helicopter was carrying two pilots of the rank of major and two technicians, one of whom was a junior commissioned officer while the other a non-commissioned officer.

The helicopter had taken off in tandem with another Dhruv yesterday at 9.30 a.m. from Sewak road base in Siliguri on a routine training exercise but lost contact with it around 11.30 a.m. over the Shiv Mandir area.

The chopper was flying at about 15,000 feet near the Yumisamdong area which is now under a thick blanket of snow and covered with dense forest.The area is around 15 km north of Lachung village in north Sikkim.

The army had on Thursday launched a major search operation but had postponed it after five hours till the morning due to inclement weather.

On April 19, a Russian-origin MI-17-2 chopper -- owned by Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd (PHHL) -- crashed claiming 17 lives after it took off from Guwahati for Tawang.

Dhruv is an indigenously-developed helicopter and has been inducted into the Army and the IAF. A total of five accidents involving the ALH Dhruv have taken place in the last six years including two fatal ones.

In the first incident in 2005, the whole fleet of the chopper was grounded after it experienced a forced landing in Andhra Pradesh due to problems in the tail rotor.

In 2007, before the Aero India, two pilots were killed in a Dhruv crash involving IAF’s aerobatic display team Sarang.

Similar incidents had taken place in 2009 and 2010 also. A Dhruv helicopter of the Ecuadorian Air Force hit the ground after veering off course while flying in formation with two other helicopters over an air force base near Quito.

In 2010, a Dhruv helicopter team of the Indian Air Force was forced to make a crash landing while rehearsing for the “Vayu Shakti” show.

2 airstrikes in Pakistan killed 50 insurgents

NATO forces carry out 2 airstrikes in Pakistan, killing more than 50 insurgents.

News Updates! NATO helicopters based in Afghanistan carried out at least two airstrikes in Pakistan that killed more than 50 militants after the insurgents attacked a small Afghan security outpost near the border, spokesmen said Monday.

NATO justified the strikes based on "the right of self-defense." Pakistan is sensitive about attacks on its territory, but U.S. officials have said they have an agreement that allows aircraft to cross a few miles into Pakistani airspace if they are in hot pursuit of a target.

The first strike took place Saturday after insurgents based in Pakistan attacked an Afghan outpost in Khost province, which is located right across the border from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, said U.S. Capt. Ryan Donald, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"The ISAF helicopters did cross into Pakistan territory to engage the insurgents," said Donald. "ISAF maintains the right to self-defense, and that's why they crossed the Pakistan border."

The strike killed 49 militants, said U.S. Maj. Michael Johnson, another ISAF spokesman.

The second attack occurred when helicopters returned to the border area and were attacked by insurgents based in Pakistan, said Donald.

"The helicopters returned to the scene and they received direct small arms fire and, once again operating in self-defense, they engaged the insurgents," said Donald.

The strike killed at least four militants, said Johnson.

The tribal area where the strikes took place is largely controlled by militants who regularly carry out attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. rarely uses manned aircraft to carry out strikes in North Waziristan and instead relies on drone attacks that American officials refuse to acknowledge publicly.

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