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After outrage over martyrs' remains in make-shift boxes, Indian Army calls it an 'abberation'

Mortal remains of helicopter accident in HAA on 6 Oct 17 recovered, sent wrapped in local resources is an aberration, the Indian Army's Twitter handle tweeted.

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Makeshift coffins and coffins in which soldiers were carried
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On Sunday, a tweet posted by Retd Lieutenant General HS Panag sparked outrage which showed the mortal remains of defence personnel who were killed in a chopper crash. The photographs showed their bodies being carried in make-shift cardboard boxes, tied up with ropes.

It was even more ironic that the incident occurred on Air Force Day. Looking to clarify, ADGPI Twitter handle wrote: “Mortal remains of heptr accident in HAA on 6 Oct 17 recovered, sent wrapped in local resources is an aberration. Fallen soldiers always given full military honour. Carriage of mortal remains in body bags, wooden boxes, coffins will be ensured.”

 

An Mi-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force crashed near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, killing all seven military personnel on board, officials said. Five IAF personnel, including two pilots, and two armymen were killed in the crash near the remote town of Tawang, close to the China border, around 6.30 am.The chopper had taken off from the Khirmu helipad near Tawang and was on its way to Yangste, said Tawang Superintendent of Police M K Meena said. The Russian manufactured Mi-17 V5 chopper was on an air maintenance mission and was also scheduled to drop off kerosene jerry cans at an Army camp in Yangste, he said.

All the bodies were recovered by a team of the IAF and the Army. The dead have been identified as Wing Commander Vikram Upadhyay, Squadron Leader S Tiwari, Master Warrant Officer A K Singh, Sgt Gautam and Sgt Satish Kumar of the Air Force and Sepoys E Balaji and H N Deka from the Army. "The rescue operation was carried out at an altitude of almost 17,000 feet above sea level," Meena said.

"All the bodies were brought to Khirmu helipad for medical formalities and flown to Tezpur airbase," he added. A team of police and district administration officials have left for the crash site to gather more details. "A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident," a senior IAF official said in Delhi. The Mi-17 V5 (domestic designation Mi-8 MTV5) is a military transport variant in the Mi-8/17 family of helicopters. It is produced by Kazan Helicopters, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters.


With inputs from PTI

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