Three people, including two pilots and an engineer, died after a helicopter crashed in Maharashtra’s Pune district and caught fire on Wednesday morning.
The incident took place around 6:45 am in hilly terrain in the Bavdhan area after the helicopter took off from a helipad located at a golf course in the vicinity.
The helicopter was carrying three people on board – two pilots, Paramjit Singh and G K Pillai, and one engineer, Pritam Bharadwaj.
“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 said.
According to preliminary information, the helicopter belonged to Heritage Aviation and was based in Pune. It had a registration number VT EVV, the police said.
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.
Pictures and videos of the incident show the helicopter on fire and massive smoke rising from it.