At least 22 military personnel, including three officers, were killed when an Mi-17 helicopter of the Pakistan Army aviation crashed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), according to a media report on Thursday.
Crash Details
The helicopter crashed 'during take-off due to a technical fault' near Muzaffarabad in PoK on Wednesday, killing all personnel on board, the army said in a brief statement. The statement did not specify the number of casualties.
However, citing a security official, BBC Urdu reported that 22 personnel were killed in the crash, including one colonel and two majors.
Funeral and Aftermath
The funeral prayers of the deceased were held on Thursday before their bodies were sent to their respective hometowns for burial. There has been no official confirmation of the death toll or the identities of the victims.
Previous Accidents
This is not the first time an Mi-17 helicopter has been involved in a fatal accident. In September last year, an Army Aviation Mi-17 helicopter crashed, killing five security personnel, including two majors. In May 2015, seven people, including foreign ambassadors, died in a helicopter crash in Gilgit-Baltistan, north of Pakistan.
