Indian Air Force, Police Teams Inspect Chopper Crash Site | What We Know So Far on Probe!

New Delhi: Teams of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and police on Friday inspected the site of the chopper crash to probe the mishap that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor.

The officials of IAF and Tamil Nadu police teams visited the site and other surrounding areas to probe the exact cause of the accident. This comes a day after Air Marshal Singh inspected the site of the crash near Coonoor along with officials on Thursday, starting an investigation into the IAF chopper crash.

Earlier, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh apprised Parliament that a tri-services inquiry team led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh has started an investigation. The Nilgiris district police had registered the FIR under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and ADSP Muthumanikam was appointed as the investigation office.

CSD General Rawat, his wife and Brigadier LS Lidder, 10 armed forces personnel were killed in the Mi-17V5 helicopter crash which is one of the biggest air accidents in India in decades involving senior military officers. The other personnel killed in the accident are Lt Col Harjinder Singh, Wing Commander PS Chauhan, Squadron Leader K Singh, JWO Das, JWO Pradeep A, Havildar Satpal, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitender Kumar, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik Sai Teja. e lone survivor, Group Captain Varun Singh, is currently undergoing treatment at a military hospital in Bengaluru.

Bipin Rawat Chopper crash: What we know so far on the probe

The Indian Air Force, in a statement, on Friday called for avoiding “uninformed speculation” to “respect the dignity of the deceased”. “The IAF has constituted a tri-service Court of Inquiry to investigate the cause of the tragic helicopter accident on 08 Dec 21. The inquiry would be completed expeditiously and facts brought out. Till then, to respect the dignity of the deceased, uninformed speculation may be avoided,” the IAF said.

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, a senior official said. “All angles including possible human error will be investigated,” a senior military offcial was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Air Marshal Singh, who is leading the tri-services inquiry team to probe the IAF chopper crash, began the investigation on Thursday with a visit to the crash site. Singh is a helicopter pilot and oversaw probes into various air accidents involving IAF platforms. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in a statement in Parliament, had announced ordering a tri-services enquiry into the accident.
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.

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.
Out of the 13 people killed in the IAF helicopter crash near Coonoor, the mortal remains of only Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and Brig LS Lidder could be identified. “Process for positive identification of remaining mortal remains is continuing. Mortal remains will be kept at the mortuary of Army Base Hospital till completion of positive identification formalities,” an official told PTI.

What govt said on IAF chopper crash

The government on Thursday, in its official statement, said the air force helicopter, which crashed and killed General Bipin Rawat and others, lost contact with air traffic control seven minutes before it was supposed to land and sent no distress call before it was found in flames in a forested area.

In a statement in Parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Gen Rawat was on a scheduled visit to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington to interact with the student officers. Singh did not indicate any SOS by the helicopter crew or bad weather in the region in the southern state of Tamil Nadu even though earlier media reports suggested poor weather conditions to be the reason behind the chopper crash.

“The Air Force Mi 17V5 helicopter took off from Sulur airbase at 11:48 AM yesterday and was expected to land at Wellington by 12:15 pm. Air Traffic Control at Sulur airbase lost contact with the helicopter at approximately 12:08 pm,” Rajnath Singh said.

The defence minister said, “Subsequently, few locals spotted a fire in the forest near Coonoor and rushed to the spot where they observed the wreckage of military helicopter engulfed in flames.”