Three die in chopper crash
The Bell 212 transport helicopter crashed in the morning while on its way to pick up the bodies of the nine victims in the Black Hawk helicopter crash on Tuesday.
The Black Hawk crashed in a Burmese forest opposite the Kaeng Krachan National Park during an operation to retrieve the bodies of five soldiers who had died in an earlier air crash involving a Huey helicopter.
The Bell helicopter caught fire on impact, killing first pilot Maj Theerawat Kaewkamol, second pilot Lt Burana Wanjai, and first mechanic SM 1 Wichian Janpat.
Second mechanic Sgt Pattanaporn Tonchan also on board was seriously injured.
Royal Thai Army Aviation commander Maj Gen Pitaya Krajangwong said after the incident that he had ordered all of the army’s approximately 20 Bell helicopters grounded.
A thorough check would be conducted to assess whether they are safe to take off again, he added.
The army has ruled out bad weather as the cause of the accident.
On Saturday, the Bell helicopter took part in transporting the remains of the first two victims of the Black Hawk crash from Phetchaburi to the 9th Infantry Division in Kanchaburi.
The corpses were of 9th Infantry Division commander Maj Gen Tawan Ruangsri and Channel 5 television cameraman Sornwichai Kongtannikul.
After leaving Kanchanaburi, the Bell helicopter returned to Bangkok before heading back to Phetchaburi to pick up more corpses yesterday morning.
But it went down in Ban Nong Ket, about 12km from the office of the Kaeng Krachan National Park or about 50km from the Black Hawk crash site.
Chanthip Saengsom, 42, a resort worker who witnessed the Bell helicopter crash, said she and three other workers were mowing a lawn when they heard the helicopter approach.
A few seconds after they looked up to see the aircraft, it was plunging to the ground, Mrs Chanthip said.
They rushed to the crash scene but could help only one victim out of the burning wreckage.
They could not help the others in time before the helicopter was engulfed in flames, said the witness.
Army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha insisted that the third helicopter crash had nothing to do with poor weather conditions which are thought to have brought down the first two helicopters.
He said the Bell 212 helicopter that crashed yesterday morning had been well maintained over the past 19 years that it had been in use and the pilots and crew on board it yesterday morning was a new team that replaced the one that flew the Black Hawk crash victims to Kanchanaburi the previous day.
“These [three] incidents happened to be close in time, so it may seem so overwhelming,” Gen Prayuth said.
Maj Gen Pitaya said a preliminary inspection of the Bell helicopter’s wreckage suggested the crash was caused by some problems with the tail rotor.
Since the helicopters did not have a black box or a cockpit voice recorder, a formal investigation to figure out the cause of the crashes could be done by simply inspecting the debris of the choppers, he said.
Meanwhile, the seven other corpses of the Black Hawk tragedy were airlifted out of the forest and stored temporarily at the Kaeng Krachan special warfare training camp in Phetchaburi yesterday.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva offered his condolences to the families that lost their loved ones in the latest helicopter accident.
The prime minister echoed the army’s assertion that the third incident was not caused by bad weather.