Defence Chief General Bipin Rawat, Wife Among 13 Killed In Chopper Crash
General Bipin Rawat: The Indian Air Force had confirmed a little before 2 pm that an Mi-17 V5 helicopter with General Rawat on board had “met with an accident near Coonoor, Tamil Nadu
General Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief ofDefence Staff, and his wife died today after a military chopper crashed in Tamil Nadu, killing 13 on board. The only survivor, an Air Force Group Captain, is being treated for severe burns.
“With deep regret, it has now been ascertained that Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs board have died in the unfortunate accident,”Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on the Indian Air Force (IAF) tweeted.
The person being treated at the military hospital in Wellington is “Group Captain Varun Singh”, said the Air Force.
The IAF had confirmed a little before 2 pm that an Mi-17 V5 helicopter with General Rawat on board had “met with an accident near Coonoor, Tamil Nadu”.
The helicopter crashed shortly after it took off from the Air Force base in Sulur at 11.45 am, Coimbatore, for Wellington in the Nilgiri Hills.
The General was heading to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington to address the faculty and students.It was making its descent and would have landed in 10 more minutes when it came down, barely 10 km from a road. The Air Force has ordered an Inquiry into what happened.
Videos showed steaming wreckage scattered on a hillside and rescuers struggling through smoke and fire to locate bodies. Charred bodies were pulled out from under mangled metal and fallen trees.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, briefed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, called a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at his residence. The Defence Minister and Army Chief MM Naravane visited General Rawat’s home in Delhi long before the official announcement.
The Defence Minister called General Rawat’s death an “irreparable loss” to the country and the forces.
General Rawat, 63, took charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff in January 2020. The position was created to integrate the three services – the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
The Chief of Defence Staff is the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and has to be the main military adviser to the Defence Minister besides giving impartial advice to the political leadership.
A former Army Chief, General Rawat was also appointed the head of the newly-created Department of Military Affairs.
The general joined the army as a second lieutenant in 1978 and had four decades of service behind him, having commanded forces in Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Actual Control bordering China.
Many former army chiefs expressed grief; they described the Mi-17 double engine chopper as a very stable aircraft used for VVIP flights.
