A Russian-made Mil Mi-17

Mil Mi-17

The Mil Mi-17 is a Russian helicopter currently in production at two factories in Kazan and Ulan-Ude...

 transport helicopter of the Pakistan Army

Pakistan Army

The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...

 crashed in the FATA

Federally Administered Tribal Areas

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

, in Orakzai Agency

Orakzai Agency

Orakzai Agency is one of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It has a population of 450,000 and an area of .- History :The Orakzai tribes take their name, which literally means the lost son , from a romantic legend about their ancestor, Sikandar Shah, who was a prince from Iran,...

 on July 3, 2009. According to a source within the Army the crash was due to a technical fault. Some sources report that local people are saying it was due to militant activity. The crash site is Chapar Feroze Khel, 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) from Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

, on the border of the semi-autonomous Orakzai

Orakzai

Orakzai is a Pashtun tribe settled in the Orakzai Agency of Pakistan. It consists of eighteen clans. Most of the members are situated in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.-Location:...

 and Khyber

Khyber agency

Khyber is a tribal area in the FATA region of Pakistan. It is one of the eight tribal areas, better known as agencies in Pakistan. It ranges from the Tirah valley down to Peshawar...

 tribal agencies. The area is remote and also full of militants, which are hampering the rescue efforts.

Official accounts state 26 soldiers as dead in the incident, but other sources put the toll at 41 people on board, all of them being killed, including 19 from the paramilitary Frontier Corps

Frontier Corps

The Frontier Corps is a federally-controlled paramilitary force of Pakistan, recruited mostly from the tribal areas along the western borders and led by officers from the Pakistan Army...

, 18 army personnel and 4 crew members. According to the Mil Mi-17 specification, Mi-17's capacity is limited to 32 passengers. Most of the personnel on board were proceeding on leave.

The helicopter was flying from Parachinar

Parachinar

Parachinar is the capital of Kurram Agency, FATA of Pakistan. It is about 290 km west of the capital, Islamabad...

, the headquarters of Kurram Agency, to Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

.
Previously there were unconfirmed reports that the helicopter might have been hit by ground fire from militants, with four casualties reported, but these have been overshadowed by Inter Services Public Relations

Inter Services Public Relations

Inter Services Public Relations is an administrative military organization within the Pakistan Defence Forces that coordinates military information with the media and the civil society...

' report. There is an ongoing operation in the area against the militants linked to Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. Militants have claimed they have shot down the aircraft and the Taliban have captured the pilot; if true this is the first such incident.

Investigations

Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani

Ashfaq Parvez Kayani

General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, NI, HI is a four-star general in the Pakistan Army, and the current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. He replaced General Pervez Musharraf as the Chief of Army Staff and the commandant of the army on November 29, 2007...

 has ordered an inquiry, but the crash prompted speculation whether the transport helicopter attracted militant gunfire and was shot down. This speculation is based on the fact that the area is a militant stronghold, and the militants had 12.7mm

.50 BMG

The .50 Browning Machine Gun or 12.7×99mm NATO is a cartridge developed for the Browning .50 caliber machine gun in the late 1910s. Entering service officially in 1921, the round is based on a greatly scaled-up .30-06 cartridge...

 machine-guns to hit a low flying aircraft.
Investigations are being carried out.
An official said that it will take some time before the actual cause can be determined.
According to sources the pilot had requested an emergency landing

Emergency landing

An emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.-Types of emergency landings:...

. They also blamed it on overloading of aircraft. Witness accounts say that it was flying at low altitude in the mountains.

Weather was also not good in the area. According to one official,

The weather was bad and the copter was flying low. It could either be because of the bad weather or excess weight. But nothing can be said with certainty until we retrieve the wreckage

Taliban claims

Taliban from nearby Darra Adam Khel

Darra Adam Khel

Darra Adam Khel is a town in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, located between Peshawar and Kohat, very close to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It is inhabited by Pashtuns of the Afridi clan, the Adam Khel. The town consists of one main street lined with shops, with some...

 have claimed responsibility for the crash. A spokesman for the Taliban identifying himself as Muhammad called AFP

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

 and said:
This was rejected by the military spokemen, who again blamed it on "'technical fault".
He further said that: