Chopper crash’s lone survivor Captain Varun Singh shifted to Bengaluru for treatment

Group Captain Varun Singh, who is on life support and is the lone survivor of Wednesday’s helicopter crash in which Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others were killed, has been airlifted to Bengaluru for further treatment.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament that Group Captain Singh is on life support and “all efforts are being made to save him”.

An ambulance on Thursday took Group Captain Singh from a military hospital in Wellington to the Sulur air base, from where he was airlifted to Bengaluru. He will be treated at the Command Hospital there, according to media reports.

Also read: Gen Rawat was alive in the moments after the crash, claims witness

The officer has severe burn injuries but his father Col KP Singh (retd) believes his son “is a fighter” and will come through.

“He is being shifted to Bengaluru. I have reached Wellington,” Col Singh was quoted as saying by PTI. On his son’s condition, he said: “I can’t say anything about that… I am not sure.”

Col Singh and his wife Uma Singh were in Mumbai at the home of their younger son Tanuj, a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, when they received news of the crash.

Group Captain Singh had won the Shaurya Chakra in August for his courage in handling his aircraft after it was hit by a snag during a sortie last year. He managed to land the Tejas fighter safely.