Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 24
A Pawan Hans helicopter carrying six people on board crash-landed at Meluri Helipad in Phek district Tuesday morning at 11 am. Fortunately, there were no casualties and the occupants are said to have escaped with minor injuries.
The chopper was reportedly carrying Ministry of Home Affairs joint secretary Mukesh Mittal, Ministry of Agriculture assistant director, Ashok Kumar Singh, OSD Home Department Nagaland Johnny Ruangmei and DDMO Home Department David Thupitor as passengers and pilot Captain Viveshwaram, and co-pilot Vijay Singh.
The team (occupants) is said to have been on their way to assess natural calamity areas at New Thewati under Meluri sub-division.
According to some eyewitnesses, the chopper crash-landed after it churned up a cloud of dust at the time of landing.
The ADC Meluri has confirmed this. When contacted, he said the helipad was frequently used by civil and army helicopters and they had never expected that the dusty field would hamper the landing of the ill-fated Pawan Hans chopper today.
The administration official, who was also an eyewitness, as he was reportedly waiting to receive the Disaster Management team, said a lot of dust were suddenly churned up while the chopper was landing. “In a matter of seconds, it crashed into a mud wall on the southern side of the helipad,” he recalled.
He said the occupants were immediately rescued and were given first aid treatment at the CHC Meluri while the public helped in dousing the fire caught by the partially damaged aircraft. The four passengers were later airlifted to Kohima in the afternoon on an IAF chopper while the pilot and the co-pilot were flown to Dimapur on a company chopper, he informed. It has been learnt that a technical team will be arriving Meluri on November 25 to find out the cause of the crash and assess the damage.
