The crash of the army's Bell 212 helicopter in Phetchaburi's Kaeng Krachan district on Sunday was apparently caused by an engine trouble, unlike the crashes of a Huey helicopter on July 16 and a Black Hawk on July 19 which were caused by bad weather, army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said.
Gen Prayuth reaffirmed that the army's aircraft have been used with full caution, but every air operation is usually risky.
He said it was necessary for the army to use helicopters to airlift the dead bodies from crash sites in the Kaeng Krachan National Park because it would take many many days to do so on foot in rugged terrains and bad weather.
The Bell 212 which crashed on Sunday morning was put in commission in 1992 or 19 years ago. As other army's aircrafts, the Bell 212 had been well maintained before use, Gen Prayuth said.
Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, the army spokesman, said earlier today that the ill-fated Bell 212 was the one that was used to deliver the bodies of Maj-Gen Tawan Ruangsri, the 9th Infantry Division commander, and Sornwichai Kongtannukul, the TV Channel 5 cameraman - who were among the nine people killed in the July 19 Black Hawk crash - from the special army training camp in Kaeng Krachan district to the 9th Infantry Division base at Surasee Camp in Kanchanaburi province on Saturday.
The helicopter flew back to the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bang Khen for a regular maintenance check.
On Sunday morning, the aircraft, with new pilots and flight mechanics, flew back to the Kaeng Krachan special training centre.
About 10km from the centre, the helicopter developed an engine trouble. It went out of control and crashed, Col Sansern said.
No comments:
Post a Comment