Hyderabad-bound private helicopter crashes near Pune; all four occupants survive

Pune: A private helicopter flying from Mumbai to Hyderabad crashed in Mulshi tehsil of Pune district on Saturday afternoon but all four persons on board survived, police said.

The occupants were identified as Captain Anand, Veer Bhatia, Amardeep Singh and S P Ram.

While the pilot was hospitalised at Paud, about 30 to 35 km from Pune city, the three passengers suffered minor injuries, an official said.

Bad weather was suspected to have caused the crash as the area is receiving heavy rains, said inspector Manoj Yadav of Paud police station. The chopper, belonging to Global Vectra aviation company, crashed at Kondhwale village around 2 pm, he said.

A video of the helicopter spiraling down went viral on social media.

Locals rushed to the rescue of the occupants as it came down. "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 said. There were no reports of the chopper experiencing any technical problems, the official said.

Inputs from PTI