An Army helicopter crashed into Ranjit Sagar Lake, near Basohli in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, on Tuesday morning.
Army spokesperson Lt Colonel Devinder Anand confirmed the crash but said details are awaited about.
As the news came in, senior civil and police officers from Kathua rushed to the crash site. Army divers were deployed for the rescue operation, but there was no trace of the people on board until 6.30 pm.
The rescue teams had found two helmets and bags, apparently belonging to the pilots, sources said.
Kathua Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) R C Kotwal told reporters that forces and boats were mobilised for the search operation, after which some pieces of chopper were found, confirming it to be an Army helicopter. “We cannot say how many people were in the chopper, and what happened to them,” PTI quoted the SSP as saying.
It was not known whether there were any other person on board barring the pilot and the co-pilot.
The helicopter, which took off from Mamun Cantt at 10.20 am, belonged to the 254 Army Aviation Squadron, it is learnt. At the time of crash, it was carrying out a routine low-level sortie over the Ranjit Sagar Lake area, sources said.
A special team of Army divers from Delhi was on way to the site to join the operation, sources said.
The lake was formed following construction of the Dam over the Ravi. The dam is nearly 30 km from both Pathankot in Punjab and J&K’s Kathua town.
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