Three persons lost their lives on Wednesday morning when a helicopter crashed and caught fire in the Pune area of Maharashtra, killing two pilots and an engineer. The helicopter took off from a nearby golf club helipad at approximately 6:45 am, and the incident happened in the hilly Bavdhan area. Three individuals were on board the helicopter: Pritam Bharadwaj, an engineer, and two pilots, Paramjit Singh and G K Pillai.
“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 the police…Other information is yet to be ascertained,” chief fire officer, Devendra Prabhakar Potphode told.
Preliminary data indicates that the Pune-based helicopter belongs to Heritage Aviation. The police reported that it was registered with the number VT EVV.
The chopper was chartered by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and was headed to Mumbai. According to NCP chief Sunil Tatkare, he was going to visit Raigad in the helicopter.
Images and videos from the incident show the aircraft burning and spewing a lot of smoke. Four fire trucks from the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are now on the scene, according to the police.
Police stated that thick fog may have contributed to the accident, even if the precise reason of the collision has not yet been determined.
A private helicopter that was travelling from Mumbai to Hyderabad crashed near Pune’s Paud hamlet in August. According to a police officer, all four of the occupants of the vehicle that crashed close to Paud survived, despite their injuries.
“A private helicopter crashed near Paud village in Pune district. The helicopter belongs to a private aviation company. It was going from Mumbai to Hyderabad, four people were travelling in the helicopter, assessment of any injuries is being looked into,” Pankaj Deshmukh, superintendent of police (Pune Rural) told.
