A defense chopper on a routine sortie crashed in Ranjit Sagar Lake in Basholi area of Kathua district in Jammu region, officials said on Tuesday.

The army helicopter crashed into the Ranjit Sagar Dam lake, which is located about 30 km from Pathankot, on Tuesday morning, prompting a massive search operation to trace the missing pilots.
A senior police officer said the crash took place around 10.43 am when the advanced light Dhruv helicopter was on a routine sortie after taking off from Mamun cantonment.
“We have pressed into service divers and motorboats but there is no clue so far,” he said.
Locals were the first to report the incident to civil and police officials.
The police officer said the heavy lift Chinook was also pressed into search to assist in rescue operation. The chopper belonged to the 254 Army Aviation Squadron.
“The depth of the lake is between 200 to 250 feet in the area of the crash and while the rescue team including specialised forces had recovered some floating objects from the lake, retrieving the wreckage will take time,” he said.
Officials have also used the services of deep water divers but the operation has been hampered due to nightfall.
Sources said two helmets, which are most likely of the two pilots who were flying the helicopter, have been retrieved.
“The muddiness of water due to recent rains is hampering the searches,” sources said.
Army ambulances, two helicopters, senior army officers and civil administration officials were also on the spot.
An army officer said that a pilot and co-pilot were flying the chopper when it went down into the dam all of a sudden.
“Searches are on to trace and rescue the two pilots but chances of their survival look very grim,” he added.
Army sources said that it was an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) that took off from the Army's Aviation Squadron at Mamun Cantonment in Pathankot, Punjab.
We have also requested the Deputy Commissioner Kathua to rush divers to the site of the incident, sources said.
Earlier in January, one pilot had died after an Indian Army helicopter crashed in Kathua district's Lakhanpur near the Jammu and Kashmir-Punjab border.
The HAL Dhruv helicopter had crashed after developing a technical snag.