Helicopter crashes in Pune’s Bavdhan, all onboard killed: ‘There was fog…’

Pune: Three people, including 2 pilots, died after a private helicopter crashed and blew up in flames, near Oxford Helipad in Maharashtra's Pune district on Wednesday morning, stated police. All the three casualties have been handed over to the police.

The incident occurred around 6:45 a.m. in a hilly region of Bavdhan, stated the Pimpri Chinchwad police. They also added that four fire tankers from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) are presently at the spot.

“We sent 4 fire vehicles along with 2 rescue vehicles...When we reached the spot, we saw that the chopper had crashed and all its parts had scattered. There was a smouldering fire,” said Chief Fire Officer, Devendra Prabhakar Photpode, reported ANI. He also added that the rescue team was able to extract three casualties, which have been handed over to the police.

According to initial reports, the helicopter belonged to Heritage Aviation, which is based in Pune. It had a registration number VT EVV, the police said. The helicopter was carrying three people on board - two pilots, Paramjit Singh and G K Pillai, and one engineer, Pritam Bharadwaj.

DGCA to investigate crash

The chopper was chartered by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and was headed to Mumbai. It was scheduled to go to Juhu, said Vishal Gaikwad, DCP of Pimpri Chinchwad.

“DGCA will investigate it. Police have cordoned off the area...”Gaikwad was quoted as saying by ANI.

While the exact cause of the crash is yet to be identified, police officials said that dense fog could have possibly led to the mishap.

BJP Corporator Dilip Vedepatil said, “There were 2 captains and 1 engineer onboard. After flying 1 km, it met with the accident...There was fog in the morning, it should not have flown but they went ahead anyway...3 people died...Auditing of this helipad is not done...To ensure that such incidents do not occur again, we the locals would try to get this helipad shut down...Maharashtra NCP chief Sunil Tatkare had used this helipad to fly to a few places yesterday, he returned here last night. We have come to know that the chopper was going to Juhu where he was...The chopper had flown him in here yesterday.”

In August, a private helicopter flying from Mumbai to Hyderabad had crashed in Pune's Paud village. Although the four occupants suffered injuries, they survived the crash that occurred near the village, stated the police, reported ANI.

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