Highlights:
- In 2015, CDS Bipin Rawat survived a helicopter crash.
- Eyewitness reports hearing a loud noise and seeing the IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter in flames.
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh expressed “deep anguish” at the tragic death of Gen. Bipin Rawat and others.
According to a rescuer who was part of the rescue crew of IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat was alive when he was dragged out of the crashed IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter. The late CDS also revealed the rescuer his name while he was being rescued from the wreckage of the IAF chopper. Apart from CDS Rawat, another person was extricated from the debris, who was eventually identified as Group Captain Varun Singh, the accident’s lone survivor.
According to a story published by one of the leading news agencies of the county, the rescuer said that when CDS Rawat was taken out from the wreckage of the Mi-17V5 chopper, he gave his identity and died on his way to the hospital.
General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) along with his wife Madhulika Rawat, Brigadier LS Lidder, the military advisor to the Chief of Defence Staff, and staff officer Wing Commander PS Chauhan, Lt Col Harjinder Singh, JWO Das, JWO Pradeep A, Squadron Leader K Singh, Havildar Satpal, Naik Jitender Kumar, Naik Gursewak Singh, Lance Naik Sai Teja, and Lance Naik Vivek Kumar were killed when an IAF Mi-17 aircraft crashed at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris area on the afternoon of December 8, 2021.
A local who lives near the crash scene stated he observed 12 dead spread near the crash site. Ravi, an eyewitness to the crash, told IANS that he heard a loud noise and saw a helicopter in flames come down. Soon after, he and a few neighbouring people raced to the accident site, where they discovered 12 burnt remains.
Also Read: Chief Of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat’s Helicopter Crashes In Tamil Nadu; 14 On Board
“We saved two people, but they were fighting for their lives. They were sent to the Army hospital in Wellington by ambulance,” he explained.
He claimed that Gen Rawat had significant burns on the lower half of his body. “He was wrapped in a bed sheet and rushed to the ambulance.”
Another local, Krishna Moorthy, who also went to the scene to assist the injured, stated that “the two people we saved had little life in them.”
The majority of the remains were stuck beneath the debris, according to Dr S Palanisamy, joint director of wellbeing (Nilgiris), who visited the spot. “The fire was out of control,” he said.
A team of medics was dispatched to the Wellington Military Hospital, where the victims were being treated.
The crash happened as the CDS was on his way to make a lecture to the young cadet officers at the Wellington Staff College at 2.30 p.m.
