Police official S.N. Mosobi says the helicopter with 23 people on board was about to land at a helipad Tuesday when it hit a wall and burst into flames. The MI-17 chopper was trying to land in the Buddhist pilgrimage town of Tawang near the border with China.

Mosobi says the six who survived are in a hospital in Tawang.

There were 18 passengers and five crew members aboard the helicopter, which was on a regular flight between Tawang and Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.