Two army majors and a soldier were killed when an Army helicopter on a rescue mission crashed in eastern Ladakh due to bad weather, a Defence spokesman said in Jammu on Saturday.

Lt Col S D Goswami said the helicopter with two pilots -- Major Padmanabhan and Major S Ganapathy of the Army Aviation Squadron at Leh -- had taken off on Friday to evacuate an injured jawan.

The helicopter lost contact with the air traffic control while returning to Leh in bad weather. The wreckage was found near a mountain pass in the eastern Ladakh.

Both the pilots and jawan, E Narsaih, who was being evacuated, were killed. The army has ordered a court of inquiry.

The temperatures in Ladakh range from minus three degrees to 30 degrees Celcius in summer and minus 20 to 15 degrees Celcius in the winter.