Chennai, October 1: A Chetak CH442 chopper has crash landed at INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu on Monday. The helicopter crashed during a training sortie. All the crew members are reported to be safe, but main and tail rotors were damaged during the crash landing. The Chetak was carrying out dry winching. The Indian Navy has not yet issued a statement regarding the incident.

In August this year, A Chetak Helicopter of the Indian Air Force made an emergency landing at a village near Siddipet in Telangana after it developed a technical snag. Similarly, in March, Indian Coast Guard’s Chetak helicopter crash-landed at Murud, near Mumbai after it faced technical glitches. Woman Co-pilot Assistant Commandant Captain Penny Chaudhary who got hurt in the incident, later succumbed to the injuries.

To replace the ageing fleet of Chetak helicopters, the Indian government approved the procurement of 111 utility helicopters for the Indian Navy at the cost of over Rs 21,000 crore in August this year. It was the first project under the Ministry of Defence's (MoD’s) Strategic Partnership (SP) Model giving a boost to government’s ‘Make in India’ Campaign. Chetak helicopters are basically used for logistics and search-and-rescue operations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 01, 2018 11:25 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).