Indian Army Aviation SA315 Crash

An Indian Army Aviation Cheetah, the licence-built version of the SA 315B, lost contact with air traffic control at about 09:15 during an operational sortie near Bomdila in West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh. The wreckage was found later the same day near a village east of Mandala, after search parties from the Army, the Sashastra Seema Bal and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police were sent into the area. Both pilots were killed. Visibility in the sector was poor because of the weather, and a court of inquiry was ordered. The single-engine Cheetah remains the mainstay of Indian high-altitude helicopter operations along the Himalayan frontier.