At least six Sri Lankan military personnel were killed on Friday after a helicopter assigned to a training exercise crashed into the Maduru Oya reservoir in the Eastern Province.
The Bell 212 helicopter, which was carrying a dozen armed forces personnel, was reportedly conducting a grappling exercise linked to a passing-out parade when the crash occurred.
“Four special forces personnel and two Air Force gunmen died of their injuries,” Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) spokesman Group Captain Eranda Geeganage told Reuters. “The helicopter was assigned to conduct a grappling exercise at a passing-out parade.”
The six soldiers were initially rescued and rushed to hospital but succumbed to their injuries shortly afterwards. Geeganage declined to comment on the cause of the crash.
Bell helicopters have long been in operation with the Sri Lankan military. These helicopters were widely deployed during the armed conflict, including in aerial assaults on Tamil regions such as Jaffna in 1995 and during the final military offensive in 2009. Their use was instrumental in combat operations that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.
Since the end of active hostilities, the Sri Lankan Air Force has continued to maintain and acquire Bell helicopters. In recent years, the military has used the aircraft for non-combat displays, such as dropping flowers from the air during cultural and religious events. In one such instance, a Bell helicopter was used during the annual Nallur Kandaswamy Temple festival in Jaffna.