India’s Chief of defence staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat died after an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17 V5 helicopter crashes near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district. His wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others were also killed in the mishap, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said.
“With deep regret, it has now been ascertained that Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on board have died in the unfortunate accident,” the Indian Air Force (IAF) tweeted.
Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was on a visit to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington (Nilgiri Hills) to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course today.
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 a 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.
General Rawat, 63, took charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff in January 2019. 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.
