Islamabad: A Mi-17 helicopter of Pakistan army’s aviation wing crashed near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s (PoK) city of Muzaffarabad on Wednesday due to a technical fault during the take-off, local media reported after confirmation from Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the official media and public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces.
All personnel on board the helicopter were killed in the crash. Pakistan military’s media affairs wing stated that rescue and recovery teams have rushed to the crash site and an inquiry has been ordered to find the exact technical cause of the accident, leading Pakistani daily Dawn reported.
Last September, five crew members died after an Pakistani army helicopter crashed in Diamer district of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan (PoGB) after it faced a technical fault, the ISPR had said in a statement. All the crew members on board had died in the crash.
“On 1 Sep 25, at around 1000 hours, an MI-17 helicopter crash landed near Hudor village, approximately 12 kilometres away from Thakdas Cantonment,” the ISPR said in the statement.
“The helicopter was on routine training flying when it developed a technical fault and crashed,” it added.
In August 2025, five crew members were killed after a Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government helicopter which was supposed to carry flood relief supplies crashed in a tribal district, The Express Tribune had reported.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s then Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had stated that MI-17 aircraft crashed in Mohmand district while it was heading to the flood-hit Salarzai area of Bajaur district, after losing contact in bad weather. Gandapur had confirmed that all the crew members on board the chopper had died in the crash, the newspaper had reported.
Earlier in 2022, the wreckage of the Pakistan Army helicopter that went missing in Balochistan was found in Lasbela district. According to a statement released by the ISPR, all six officers and soldiers who were on board the helicopter were killed in the crash.
(IANS)
