In two separate incidents, two pilots and an engineer were killed after a helicopter belonging to a private aviation company crashed and caught fire in Maharashtra’s Pune district on Wednesday morning, an Indian Air Force helicopter made an emergency landing in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar on Wednesday after it developed a snag.

In the first incident which reported casualty, the helicopter belonging to the Delhi-based Heritage Aviation took off from the Oxford County Golf Course helipad here and was heading to Juhu in Mumbai when it crashed at 7.40 am, police said. The incident took place near a hilly terrain in Bavdhan area, which is close to the golf course, according to police.

“Three persons have died in the helicopter crash. Our teams along with fire department vehicles have reached the spot,” Pimpri Chinchwad Commissioner of Police Vinaykumar Choubey said.

“The deceased have been identified as Girish Kumar, Pritam Singh Bhardwaj and Paramjeet Singh,” Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s fire officer Anil Dimle said. Primary information suggested fog in the area led to the accident.

In the Bihar incident, Senior Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kumar said the helicopter was coming from adjoining Darbhanga after air-dropping relief material for the flood affected victim.

“The helicopter made an emergency landing in a water-logged area in Aurai block. All the occupants were IAF personnel and they were pulled out by locals by the time officials reached the spot,” said the SSP. District Magistrate Subrat Kumar Sen said, “All four occupants appear safe and unharmed. However, as a precaution, they are being taken to a local hospital for check-up and treatment, if required.”