Two trainee pilots and a technician were killed when a Cheetah helicopter of the army on a routine training flight crashed near Gandhinagar airstrip near Nasik on Friday, officials said.

Brigadier Teji Gill, commandant of the Combat Army Aviation Training School in Nasik, told reporters the five-seater helicopter was on a local flight as part of a training programme when it crashed following a technical failure.

The helicopter caught fire and the victims were burnt to death, he said.

The dead were identified as Major Rohit Yadav (29), hailing from Haryana, Major Sarjiya Chakravarty (28) from West Bengal and technician M D Gopi, he said.

A four-member technical team is being set up by Army Headquarters to inquire into the incident, he said.

The bodies were sent to a military hospital for autopsy, Gill said.

Media persons were not allowed to visit the accident spot, which was cordoned off by the army soon after the mishap.

There are a total of 32 helicopters in army aviation base at Gandhinagar.