A crew of five died on Monday after an army helicopter crashed in Diamer District?s Chilas town in Gilgit-Baltistan, officials said.

Diamer Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abdul Hameed, in a statement, said: ?Reportedly, five casualties occurred due to [helicopter] crash.? He confirmed to Dawn.com that the helicopter belonged to the Pakistan Army.

The helicopter was conducting a test landing on a newly proposed helipad, SSP Hameed said. Diamer police and rescue teams had reached the incident site and started evacuation, the officer added.

While the official said the cause of the crash was yet to be ascertained, the GB government spokesperson cited a ?technical failure?.

Earlier this month, a rescue helicopter crashed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa?s Bajaur district, killing two pilots and three crew members. The helicopter was dispatched with supplies following flash flooding in the region.

In 2024, at least six people died and eight others were critically injured after a helicopter of a petroleum company crashed near the Shewa oil field in North Waziristan.

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