While the reason for the crash is still not known, senior police officers said a dense fog in the area may have led to the accident. Officials in the civil aviation ministry said the pilots should not have taken off as the visibility in the area was just 1.2 km.

The deceased were identified as Girish Kumar Pillai and Paramjeet Singh, the two pilots, and engineer Pritam Bhardwaj. Pillai and Singh were previously pilots in the Indian Army and Air Force, respectively.

The AgustaWestland AW109 helicopter, with the registration number VT EVV, belonged to Heritage Aviation, a Delhi-based company. The chopper took off from a helipad at the Oxford Golf Resort in Bavdhan at 7.30 am on Wednesday and was heading to Juhu in Mumbai when it crashed in hilly terrain around 7:40 am.

The chopper, which had only the three deceased on board, was chartered by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for election campaigning, officials said. NCP’s Maharashtra chief, Sunil Tatkare, was supposed to use it to travel from Mumbai to Raigad on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, he had travelled in the same chopper to Beed in Marathwada.

“I am deeply saddened by the incident,” said Tatkare. “Our party had booked this chopper for our election campaign. Yesterday, I travelled on the same chopper. I was supposed to go to Raigad. Unfortunately, this incident happened.”

According to Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey, all three people on board died instantly as the helicopter caught fire after crashing. “Our teams, along with fire department vehicles, reached the spot and have gathered some details based on which a further probe is on,” said Choubey.

Four water tankers and a fire tender were rushed to the spot, according to fire brigade officials. “When we reached the spot, we saw that the chopper had crashed and all its parts had scattered. There was a smouldering fire. We were able to extract three casualties, and they were handed over to the police…Other information is yet to be ascertained,” said chief fire officer Devendra Prabhakar Potphode.

Primary information suggested that dense fog in the area may have led to the accident, according to Pimpri Chinchwad’s joint commissioner of police, Shashikant Mahavarkar. “A detailed investigation will ascertain the exact cause of the crash,” he said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has also launched an investigation into the crash.

Vishal Gaikwad, deputy commissioner of police, Pimpri-Chinchwad, also said the helicopter had taken off when there was fog in the air. “We received information about its crash immediately after it took off at 7.30 am today. DGCA will investigate it. Police have cordoned off the area,” he said.

This is the third helicopter crash in Maharashtra in the last five months. On August 24, a private helicopter flying from Mumbai to Hyderabad crashed in Pune’s Mulshi region, injuring four people on board. Officials had said bad weather and poor visibility led to the crash. On May 3, a helicopter crashed while landing at Mahad in Raigad district, injuring the pilot. The helicopter was scheduled to fly Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare, who was in Mahad to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.