NEW DELHI: General Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence 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.
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.
