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The mortal remains of Major Jayanth A of Army Aviation, who died in a chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh, arrived at Madurai for his last rites.
Officers of the Indian Army paid a ceremonial tribute to Major Jayanth A at the airport. Apart from Major Jayanth A, Lieutenant Colonel VVB Reddy, who was also in that ill-fated chopper that went down in Arunachal, was bade a tearful farewell with full military honours at Assam's Tezpur. The two Army officers were on an operational sortie in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday when the chopper crashed. "Obeisance was paid with full military honours at Tezpur to the mortal remains of Lt Col VVB Reddy and Maj Jayanth A of Army Aviation, who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty on March 16 while on an operational sortie in Arunachal Pradesh," read a release by the Indian Army. Defence Guwahati Public Relations Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Rawat, said the wreath was laid on behalf of a grateful nation for the untiring service to the nation by the officers. The mortal remains have been moved to their hometowns Yadadri (near Hyderabad), Telangana and Madurai, Tamil Nadu in a special military plane, it added. According to officials, the Army Aviation Cheetah helicopter flying an operational sortie near Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh crashed near the Mandala hills area of the state on Thursday. The aircraft was reported to have lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller at around 9.15 am on Thursday. Previously, thirteen 13 Indian Air Force personnel died after an AN-32 aircraft crashed on June 3, 2019, after taking off from Assam's Jorhat. The aircraft was headed for Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh when it lost contact with ground authorities around 1 pm. After a massive search and rescue operation over eight days, during which assets from several agencies were deployed, the wreckage of the aircraft was located by a Mi-17 chopper. The remains of IAF personnel were retrieved on June 20 from Arunachal Pradesh where the plane crashed. The wreckage was located 16 km north of Lipo in Arunachal Pradesh at an elevation of 12,000 feet. (ANI)
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