NEW DELHI: Obsolete single-engine Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, which lack modern avionics and suffer from poor maintainability, have taken two more precious young lives in the armed forces.
Majors Rohit Kumar (35) and Anuj Rajput (28) were killed after their Cheetah helicopter crash-landed near Patnitop while on a routine operational sortie with another chopper in J&K at about 11 am on Tuesday.
“The two choppers were returning to their Udhampur base from the Kishtwar area when radio contact was lost with the Cheetah that crash-landed. Though both the pilots were critically injured, one responded to a call on his mobile phone. They were evacuated by road to the nearest medical facility but succumbed to their injuries,” said an officer.
