All eight Indian Air Force personnel were killed when two helicopters collided mid-air in the western state of Gujarat on Thursday, AP quoted officials as saying. The Russian-made Mi-17 choppers were on a training sortie at a firing range in the Jamnagar district when the accident occurred. Locals who witnessed the accident said the helicopters crashed in fields and one of them caught fire. "Eight crew members have died," Jamnagar's deputy police chief GR Gadvi said by phone from Jamnagar, 280 kilometres west of state capital Gandhinagar. In New Delhi, an Indian Air Force spokesman said an inquiry had been ordered into the cause of the crash. The Mi-17 forms the backbone of the Indian Air Force's helicopter fleet and has a good safety record.
