Helicopter With 4 On Board Crashes Amid Heavy Rain In Pune

A helicopter crashed in Pune due to strong winds and bad weather today. All the four people who were travelling in the helicopter survived the crash.

The aircraft, an AW 139, took off from Juhu in Mumbai. It was flying to Hyderabad when it crashed in Paud, near Pune city.

The captain, who was injured, was taken to hospital for treatment. The chopper, owned by Global Vectra Helicorp, crashed at Kondhwale village around 2 pm, Inspector Manoj Yadav of Paud police told news agency PTI. Locals rushed to the site to help the occupants.

"When they took off from Mumbai, the weather was fine, but when the chopper reached Paud area, which has been receiving rains since last night, it encountered difficulties. The pilot tried to land but it hit a babul tree and then crashed to the ground," said Inspector Yadav.

As the fall was broken by the tree, the impact of the final crash appeared to have been mitigated, he added.

In May, a private helicopter that came to pick up Shiv Sena leader Sushma Andhare had crashed while trying to land. The pilot and his assistant had escaped safely.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued orange alerts, warning of heavy rainfall, for Pune and Satara districts in western Maharashtra. 

A low pressure area over east central Arabian Sea off the Maharashtra coast will bring rain to most parts of Maharashtra in the next 48 hours, an IMD official has said.