On 8 December 2021, a Mil Mi-17V-5 transport helicopter operated by the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

(IAF) crashed between

Coimbatore Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...

and Wellington in Tamil Nadu, after departing from Sulur Air Force Station. The helicopter was carrying Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 13 others, including his wife and staff. Thirteen people on board were killed in the immediate aftermath, and

Group Captain Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force, where it originated, as well as the air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank i ...

Varun Singh died from his injuries at a hospital seven days later.

Aircraft and crew

The Russian-built

Mil Mi-17 The Mil Mi-17 ( NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russian servic ...

medium-lift helicopter was one of the first batch of 80 of its type built for the IAF under the terms of a 2008 contract. Delivered to the IAF in 2011 and inducted into service in 2012, the helicopter had flown over 26 hours without incident since its most recent servicing. Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, the commanding officer of 109 Helicopter Unit, was the pilot in command, with co-pilot Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh and two junior warrant officers comprising the rest of the crew.

Accident

The passengers had boarded the flight around 11:45 a.m. local time (

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

). At 11:48 a.m. local time, the helicopter took off with 10 passengers and 4 crew members from Sulur Air Force Station, headed roughly to the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington, Tamil Nadu. General Rawat, his wife and his staff were travelling to the DSSC, where Rawat was to address the college's faculty and student officers. The flight was scheduled to arrive at Wellington by 12:15 p.m. Shortly before losing contact with the Sulur Air force base at 12:08 p.m., the pilots had radioed air traffic control to confirm their imminent landing at the Wellington

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

. The aircraft then crashed near a residential colony of private tea estate employees on the outskirts of the hamlet of Nanjappachatiram, Bandishola panchayat, in the Katteri-Nanchappanchathram area of Coonoor taluk, Nilgiris district. The crash site was from the flight's intended destination. According to an eyewitness, he saw "the helicopter coming down ... it hit one tree and was on fire. There were plumes of smoke" when he ran over. "In minutes, the fire was higher" than his house. Villagers threw water over the fire in attempt to put it out. Initial reports of the crash emerged around 12:20 p.m., with a search-and-rescue operation launched at 12:25 p.m. The IAF officially confirmed General Rawat's presence on the flight in a tweet sent at 1:53 p.m. Rescue operations continued until 3:25 p.m. Fire and Rescue Services personnel who managed to reach the crash site after some difficulty, as the site was 500 meters from a major road, reported the crash victims had been burnt beyond recognition.

Casualties

Bipin Rawat Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

The ten passengers on board the flight included Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat, liaison officer

Varun Singh, SC and the general's personal staff, comprising his defence assistant Brigadier Lakhbinder Singh Lidder,

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Harjinder Singh, Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, Junior Warrant Officer Rana Pratap Das, Junior Warrant Officer Arakkal Pradeep, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar, Lance Naik B. Sai Teja, Havildar Satpal Rai, Naik Gursewak Singh and Naik Jitendra Kumar. Following the crash, the IAF released statements at 18:03 confirming the death of 13 of the 14 people on board, including General Rawat and his wife. As of 21:30 local time, all 13 of the bodies had been recovered from the crash site. An instructor at the DSSC, Group Captain Varun Singh, was the initial survivor of the crash, and was taken to the military hospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, for surgery. Having sustained burns over 45% of his body, he was transferred to the Command Hospital in Bengaluru for further treatment on

life support Life support comprises the treatments and techniques performed in an emergency in order to support life after the failure of one or more vital organs. Healthcare providers and emergency medical technicians are generally certified to perform basic ...

. He died from his injuries on 15 December 2021.

Aftermath

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the evening of the disaster to decide on a further course of action. The Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh made a formal announcement in Parliament of India on 9 December regarding the incident. The Opposition suspended its protests in Parliament for one day as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the crash.

Investigation

The flight data recorder was recovered on the morning of 9 December. A tri-service court of inquiry was established by the

, headed by Air Marshal

Manavendra Singh Air Marshal Manavendra Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VSM, ADC is a retired officer of the Indian Air Force. He served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Training Command. He assumed the office on 25 September 2021 succeeding Air ...

, the AOC-in-C Training Command. Early in January 2022, anonymous defence officials attached to the team indicated that the inquiry was complete and the probable cause of the accident was Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), which occurs when the pilot is in full control of the aircraft but due to faulty situational awareness the aircraft strikes the terrain. The chopper was reportedly flying at a low altitude when it entered a rolling cloud cover that drastically reduced visibility. In the process of trying to fly out of the cloud cover, it hit a cliff and crashed. On 14 January 2022, the court of inquiry's preliminary findings were officially made public. It termed the accident "a result of entry into clouds due to unexpected change in weather conditions", which "led to

spatial disorientation Spatial disorientation results in a person being unable to determine their position or relative motion, commonly occurring during periods of challenging visibility, since vision is the dominant sense for orientation. The auditory system, vestibular ...

of the pilot resulting in Controlled Flight into Terrain". The court ruled out any mechanical failure, sabotage or negligence to be a cause of the accident.

References