Major-general dies in N-E copter cr

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Subject: Major-general dies in N-E copter crash

Major-general dies in N-E copter crash

July 8th '97.
The Asian Age (New Delhi)

Guwahati: AN Army helicopter carrying the chief of staff of 3 Corps,
Maj. Gen. Keshav Singh, and three others, including two crew members,
went missing soon after it took of from the corps headquarters at
Rangapahar near Dimapur, Nagaland, on Monday morning, reports our
special correspondent.

The two pilots on board were Capt. Surjit Singh and Capt. S. Srivastava,
defence sources in New Delhi said reports PTI.

Army sources said the Chetak helicopter took off at 7 in the morning for
Limakong (Leikmakun), near Imphal, but soon the ground control lost
radio contact with it. "The last message which ground control received
was that weather conditions were very bad and that they were returning
either to base or to Kohima," the sources said.

However, official sources in Nagaland said the helicopter crashed over
the Sakhraba hill in the Phek district, about 80 km from Kohima. "Some
villagers reported seeing a helicopter crashing down in the area," an
official in Kohima said. Maj. Gen. J.B.S. Sharma, GOC of a mountain
division based in Manipur, said over the telephone that the ground
troops and helicopter were looking for the missing helicopter, but there
was no trace of it till the afternoon.

Maj. Gen. Singh was on his way to the border town of Moreh where he was
to preside over a meeting on Wednesday with Burmese Army officers,

He was to have arrived at Moreh by noon on Monday.