Pakistan Army Mi-17 crashes near Muzaffarabad in POK; all on board killed, toll not yet disclosed

New Delhi: A Pakistan Army Mi-17 helicopter crashed near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) on Wednesday during take-off, killing all personnel on board, according to Pakistan’s military. The Inter-Services Public Relations said the aircraft went down because of a technical fault and that there were no survivors.

Dawn, citing the ISPR, reported that rescue and recovery teams were rushed to the crash site soon after the accident. The military has also ordered a board of inquiry to determine the precise technical cause of the crash.

At the time of writing, Pakistan’s military had not publicly disclosed how many people were on board the helicopter. That means the only confirmed casualty line is that all personnel aboard were killed, while the exact death toll remains officially undisclosed.

Dawn also reported that Field Marshal Asim Munir, the chief of Pakistan’s army staff, expressed grief over the loss of life and extended condolences to the families of those killed. No official Pakistani statement available so far has suggested hostile action, and the crash remains officially described as a technical-fault accident pending the inquiry’s findings.

POK has been witnessing civil unrest against the Pakistani government. As RNA media reported earlier, several people have been killed as the government launched a crackdown on residents protesting in many places against the government on several issues, which lead to further violence.

The Mi-17 is a Russian-origin medium-lift helicopter widely used for transport, logistics and operations in difficult terrain. Several countries, including the Indian Air Force, operate it, which comes in many varients. In practical terms, a take-off crash is among the most serious categories of rotary-wing accidents because the aircraft has limited altitude and time to recover if a critical system fails, although Pakistani official sources have not yet supplied any further technical detail in this case.

Pakistan has also recorded several fatal peacetime military aviation accidents in recent years. Dawn reported that five crew members were killed when an Pakistan Army helicopter crashed in Gilgit-Baltistan in September 2025 after developing a technical fault. Pakistani media reported their country’s army suffered helicopter crashes in Harnai in 2022 and Lasbela in 2022, each killing six personnel. In July 2019, a Pakistani army plane crashed near Rawalpindi, killing crew members and civilians on the ground.