Pakistani army helicopter crashes in Kashmir, killing all aboard

A Pakistan Army Mi-17 helicopter went down near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir shortly after takeoff, killing all military personnel aboard and sending smoke over the crash site before ambulances and rescue crews arrived. The military blamed a technical fault and said a board of inquiry would determine the exact cause.

Witnesses said the aircraft fell from a helipad near the regional capital and caught fire after impact. The helicopter was identified in later reporting as an Army Aviation Mi-17, one of the workhorse aircraft used by Pakistan’s military in rough terrain and security operations. Rescue and recovery teams moved in immediately, and victims were taken to a nearby hospital.

The crash landed in a politically sensitive moment. A protest and strike had been called by the Joint Awami Action Committee, a recently banned alliance of various groups, and residents said paramilitary Rangers were likely among those being flown for security duties. The military did not connect the unrest to the accident, but the timing highlighted how tense conditions remained in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir each expressed sorrow and condolences to the families of those killed. The Inter-Services Public Relations said the helicopter had crashed during takeoff because of a technical fault, but officials did not immediately release the number of people on board or the full chain of events that led to the fire.

The crash also revived questions about whether this was an isolated failure or part of a broader pattern in Pakistan’s military aviation. In September 2025, an army helicopter crash in northern Pakistan killed five people on board, later identified as two pilots and three technicians. Another crash in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district killed five army personnel, including two majors. Separate reporting from the same month described a military helicopter accident during flood-relief or rescue work, again tied in initial assessments to technical fault or bad weather.

Pakistan’s army relies heavily on helicopters for movement, security and emergency response across mountainous regions where weather and terrain can turn a mechanical problem into a fatal one. The Muzaffarabad crash now places maintenance standards, flight procedures and operational transparency under fresh scrutiny, especially as the military faces pressure to explain why a technical fault keeps surfacing in fatal helicopter losses.