News Analysis India

Tag: IAF Helicopter Crash

  • Ashes of General Bipin Rawat, wife immersed in Ganga in Haridwar

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN: The ashes of General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika were immersed in the Ganga in Haridwar by their two daughters on Saturday.

    The rituals were conducted by priests Aditya Vashisth and Parikshit Sikhola as the urns containing the ashes of General Rawat and his wife were emptied into the holy river by their daughters, Tarini and Kritika, amid full military honours.

    Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met the two sisters at the VIP ghat. He said General Rawat will forever remain lodged in people’s memory.

    India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Rawat and his wife Madhulika were killed, along with 11 others, in a tragic helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on December 8. General Rawat hailed from Saina village in Uttarakhand’s Pauri district.

  • IAF chopper crash: Tamil Nadu CM Stalin writes to kin of deceased persons expressing condolence

    By PTI

    CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday personally wrote to the families of the Defence personnel killed in the Coonoor helicopter crash expressing his condolences, the state government said. All the people were with the families during this tough time, he told them in separate letters.

    Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others were killed after the helicopter carrying them to Wellington in the Nilgiris district in the state crashed near Coonoor there on Wednesday.

    Stalin had rushed to Coonoor soon after coming to know of the accident and paid floral tributes to the departed on Thursday, an official release recalled.

    The state government had ensured all arrangements during the rescue activities and later during transportation of the mortal remains of the deceased, which were later flown from Coimbatore to Delhi, it said.

    “Further, the chief minister today wrote individually to the families of the Defence personnel killed in the accident, expressing his sincere condolences and regret.”

    “He said all the people were by them in this tough time and said though their loss is irreparable, he wished they got the strength to recover from it,” the release said.

  • IAF helicopter crash: All possible angles being probed

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The tri-services team investigating the tragic chopper crash near Coonoor that killed CDS Gen Bipin Rawat and 12 others is focusing on all possible reasons including whether a human error caused the accident, people familiar with the development said on Thursday.

    The black box, comprising the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), of the ill-fated Mi-17V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force was recovered from the crash site on Thursday.

    While the CVR will provide details about the communication between the pilots and the air traffic control, the FDR will provide information like altitude, speed and other technical data of the chopper.

    ALSO READ: CDS General Bipin Rawat: An outstanding, forthright military commander with vision of tri-service synergy

    The Chief of Defence Staff had left the Palam airbase in an IAF Embraer aircraft at 8:47 am and landed at Sulur airbase at 11:34 am.

    He took off from Sulur in a Mi-17V5 chopper at around 1148 am for Wellington, official sources said.

    The chopper crashed at around 12:22 pm, they said, adding it was to land at Wellington at around 12:15 pm.

    ALSO READ: CDS General Bipin Rawat was making ‘necessary adjustments’ among three forces, says former Army chief Shankar Roychowdhury

    “All angles including possible human error will be investigated,” a senior military offcial said.

    In a statement in Parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced ordering a tri-services enquiry into the accident.

    Air Marshal Manavendra Singh, who is heading the tri-services team investigating the tragic chopper crash near Coonoor, is a helicopter pilot and oversaw probes into various air accidents involving IAF platforms.

    ALSO READ: Madhya Pradesh loses daughter Madhulika and son-in-law General Bipin Rawat

    Several former and serving military commanders described Air Marshal Singh, currently heading the Bengaluru-headquartered Training Command of the IAF, as the “best” available air crash investigator in the country.

    Before taking the reins of the Training Command, the Air Marshal was the Director General (Inspection and Safety) at the Air headquarters and developed various protocols for flight safety while serving in the post.

    In a distinguished career spanning over 38 years, the Air Officer has flown a wide variety of helicopters and trainer aircraft.

    He is a qualified flying instructor with vast instructional experience and over 6600 hours of accident-free flying in various challenging sectors like the Siachen, the Northeast, Uttarakhand, the Western desert and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    The Air Marshal has also served in tri-service joint institutions and was Assistant Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Joint Operations) at the headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff.