A military helicopter crashed near Mansehra district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing all twelve on board, a military source confirmed Thursday evening. The charred corpses were burnt beyond recognition. According to an ISPR official, the helicopter, which was carrying relief items and medicines to Gilgit, had taken off from Chaklala, Rawalpindi. A senior military official said the helicopter crashed over the mountains in the Mohar area of northern Mansehra district, adding that it appeared bad weather might have caused the crash. The incident is the second fatal crash involving army helicopters this year. In May, an army helicopter crashed in Naltar Valley killing seven people, including three ambassadors. Ambassador of Philippines Domingo D Lucenario Jr, Ambassador of Norway Leif Larsen and the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors were among seven people killed in the helicopter crash in Naltar Valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region on May 8, 2015. The incident, which came less than three months after the Mi-17 helicopter crash in Naltar near Gilgit, also highlighted the hectic times — replete with pressing, unavoidable, urgent jobs — that this country is passing through. This entails plenty of activity, including urgent assignments for the Mi-17s, a model that had five accidents over the past decade until it met with two in a day on Thursday. The Naltar accident was blamed on a mechanical fault. Of Thursday’s incidents, technical fault was again ascribed to the helicopter which crash-landed in Chitral whereas the weather was held responsible for the deadly plunge near Mansehra. An inquiry should bring greater details about exactly what went wrong, and where, during the journey. Prima facie, Pakistan’s Mi-17 helicopters, made in Russia and refurbished with American help, are a case requiring some serious scrutiny and perhaps some fast improvement in hardware. Investigation must already be under way in the wake of the huge loss at Naltar. The latest double blow must take the probe deeper and lead to comprehensive redress. No one — not even those who are taught to look the gravest danger in the eye — should be allowed to risk beyond what is absolutely necessary.
pk.shafaqna.com
