Three people were killed after a private helicopter crashed and caught fire in Pune district of Maharashtra on Wednesday morning.
The helicopter, belonging to a Delhi-based private aviation firm, Heritage Aviation, took off from the Oxford Golf Course helipad in Pune and was heading to Juhu in Mumbai when the accident took place in the hilly Bavdhan area at 6.45 am.
According to police, two pilots—Girish Kumar Pillai and Paramjit Singh—and an engineer, Pritamchand Bharadwaj, died in the accident. "Three persons have died in the helicopter crash. Our teams along with fire department vehicles have reached the spot," Pimpri Chinchwad Commissioner of Police Vinaykumar Choubey said.
#WATCH | Pune (Maharashtra) helicopter crash | Vishal Gaikwad, DCP Pimpri-Chinchwad says, "Today, a private helicopter of Heritage Aviation took off from Oxford Helipad Bavdhan. We received information about its crash immediately after it took off at 7.30 am today. 2 pilots and… pic.twitter.com/76mZHSLcSc
— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2024
After the crash, the chopper caught fire.
The area has been cordoned off and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will conduct a probe into the accident, the police added.
"When we reached the spot, we saw that the chopper had crashed and all its parts had scattered. There was a smouldering fire. We were able to extract three casualties and these were handed over to police," chief fire officer Devendra Prabhakar Potphode has been quoted as saying.
#WATCH | Pune (Maharashtra) helicopter crash | Chief Fire Officer Devendra Prabhakar Potphode says, "...We got the information that there is a chopper crash very close to Oxford helipad. Our fire teams from the nearest fire stations responded...We also summoned PMRDA fire… pic.twitter.com/4ApOZ2Vutm
— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2024
The cause of the crash was yet to be ascertained. Police have suggested that dense fog could possibly have been the reason for the accident.
