Phnom Penh: A Cambodian military helicopter that went missing on July 12 was found in the Cardamom Mountains on Monday, with one person confirmed dead and another still missing.
“After a 17-day search operation, our search team found the missing helicopter in the Cardamom Mountains on July 29, 2024,” General Chhum Socheat, Secretary of State and spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defence, announced the discovery in a post on social media.
“The helicopter was spotted from the air at the Yav Yai Mountain in Thmor Da commune of Pursat province’s Veal Veng district after the weather improved,” he added.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Tea Seiha has said that the chopper had gone missing with two people on board – a pilot and an assistant.
“The helicopter was flying during a training mission and had got into difficulties due to acute bad weather,” he said, Xinhua news agency reported.
The National Committee for Disaster Management said in a news release on Monday evening that the search and rescue team found the corpse of the assistant in the crashed chopper at around 5 pm local time, as the search is still going on for the pilot.
General Ith Sarath, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, who led the search and rescue operation, said more than 1,000 ground and air forces had taken part in this operation.
The helicopter had lost contact with the air force headquarters while flying over the densely forested Cardamon Mountain range during a training flight on July 12 due to bad weather, according to the Ministry of National Defence.
–IANS
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