3 Army officers survive Leh chopper crash, their post-accident selfie goes viral

Three Indian Army officers, including a Major General, survived after a Cheetal light helicopter crashed in the Ladakh sector near Leh on May 20, officials said.

The helicopter, a newer variant of the Cheetah equipped with a TM333B engine, met with an accident during an afternoon sortie. Army officials said the aircraft was carrying two pilots and Division Commander Major General Sachin Mehta at the time of the crash.

All three sustained injuries but are safe and stable, officials added. The two pilots were admitted to hospital with minor injuries.

Meanwhile, a selfie of Major General Mehta taken after the crash surfaced on social media and quickly went viral.

The Army has ordered a Court of Inquiry to ascertain the cause of the helicopter crash.

The helicopter involved in the accident was a Cheetal, a version of the ageing Cheetah fleet that has served the Indian armed forces for decades. Derived from the French-origin Aerospatiale Alouette III design, the Cheetah helicopters became a backbone of military operations in high-altitude regions such as Ladakh, Siachen and Arunachal Pradesh because of their ability to operate in thin air and extreme weather conditions.

For years, the light helicopters have been used for reconnaissance missions, casualty evacuation, troop movement and ferrying supplies to remote forward posts inaccessible by road.

However, much of the Cheetah and Chetak fleet is now decades old and has increasingly come under scrutiny over maintenance challenges and safety concerns. The armed forces have been gradually moving towards replacing them with newer indigenous platforms.

India has already begun inducting the indigenously-built Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, to eventually replace the ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters across the Army and Air Force.

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(With inputs from Shivani Sharma.)