Gen Rawat’s chopper crashed just seven minutes before landing

The Mi-17 helicopter with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others on board crashed just seven minutes before it was supposed to land at Wellington in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.

The chopper took off from IAF’s Sulur Air Base in Coimbatore at 11:48 am and was expected to land at Wellington by 12:15 pm. The Air Traffic Control at Sulur Air Base lost contact with the chopper at 12.08 pm, media reports said.

Air Chief Marshal Fali H Major (retired), who had inducted the Mi-17V-5 chopper in the IAF during his tenure, told a news channel on Wednesday that he failed to understand what could have gone wrong with the highly sophisticated helicopter in a journey which was not more than 20-25 minutes long.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on Thursday that the black box has been recovered from the crashed helicopter and they would know the exact cause of the accident soon.

Also read: Inquiry has begun into chopper crash that killed CDS Rawat: Rajnath Singh

The Indian Air Force has already ordered a high-level, tri-services inquiry under Air Marshal Manvendra Singh.

A day after the accident, locals shared a video on social media that showed the Mi-17 helicopter flying very low before it crashed into the jungles near Coonoor.

The only survivor of the crash was Group Captain Varun Singh, who was taken to a military hospital in Wellington for treating severe burn injuries. He was shifted to Bengaluru on Thursday afternoon. Doctors say Captain Singh is critical but stable.