Lucknow/Sirsa, November 26
An Army helicopter crashed in the Ramganga river in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district today, killing the pilot from Sirsa in Haryana and seriously injuring the co-pilot, the police here said.
“The Army’s Cheetah helicopter crashed in the Ramganga river in Bareilly’s Oonchagaon village,” Javeed Ahmad, IGP of Bareilly zone, said.
Lieut Sachin Bhatia, 26, was killed while Major K.D. Singh, 34, who hails from Gurdaspur, was injured and is undergoing treatment at the Military Hospital in Bareilly, Ahmad added. Both officials were from the Sikh regiment of the Army. The injured Major reportedly managed to swim to safety.
Reasons for the mishap were being investigated by a joint team of the Army and the police, he said.
The death of Sachin Bhatia has come as a bolt from the blue for his parents and other family members in Sirsa.
His parents, Ashok Bhatia, a patwari, and mother, a teacher, left for Bareilly immediately after getting the news of the chopper crash this afternoon. The parents first received the information that Sachin had been injured in the crash.
Friends and relatives started gathering at Sachin’s ancestral house situated in the Savera Wali Gali on the Hisar road of the town after hearing the news.
Sachin was a brilliant boy and was married only last year. His wife Neetika, an IDBI bank official who was posted here, had got her transfer orders to
Bareilly, where Sachin was posted, only last month.
“Sachin, the second eldest of the three siblings, did his schooling from Sainik School, Kunjpura, and then was trained as a pilot from Nasik. He joined the Army and was posted at Bareilly these days,” said Neelam, a cousin of Sachin. His elder sister was married and the younger brother was pursuing his studies, the family sources said.
“The mishap took place today around 12.30 pm in Oonchagaon village in Bareilly,” Bareilly district police chief Vinod Kumar Singh said.
He said minutes before the accident the chopper moved jerkily in the air and fell into the river. There were only two persons in the chopper at the time of mishap.
