Locals say there was almost zero visibility due to fog when IAF chopper crashed

The IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter, carrying Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and 13 others crashed minutes before reaching its destination in Tamil Nadu's Wellington. Locals say there was almost zero visibility due to fog when the crash took place.

Coonoor (Tamil Nadu): The ill-fated IAF helicopter was barely 5 km away from its scheduled landing spot when it crashed in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor.

Thirteen of the 14 occupants of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17V5 helicopter, which had Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat among others onboard, died in the tragic crash on Wednesday.

As per weather reports, the aerial route the chopper took from the Sulur IAF base had a forecast indicating low clouds, high humidity and light rain.

Locals said that the temperature was around 15 degrees when the mishap occurred and a thick fog had engulfed the entire valley of Nanjappan Chathiram near Coonoor at the time of the mishap.

They claimed that the Army officials at the Wellington Cantonment, the touchdown point of the IAF's Mi-17V5 helicopter, had already scrambled their resources to know the whereabouts of the chopper which had lost contact after entering the hilly terrain.

A Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue department official said the distress call from a resident of Nanjappan Chatiram was received at noon and the information was immediately passed on to the District Collector, Superintendent of Police and the Army officials.

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V Mathimaran, a local resident, said that the area has been receiving light rains continuously which leads to a dip in temperature compared to Coonoor.

The fog has completely engulfed the valley. One cannot see beyond 2m which is as bad as zero visibility.

“We heard the officials discussing that the chopper had taken off from Sulur IAF at 10.30 am and was supposed to reach Cantonment by 11.20 am. They said they had lost contact with the chopper when it came near Parliar and they had been searching for the same since 11.20 am,” he added.

Officials were tight lipped about the entire episode stating that an inquiry is already on to establish the actual cause of the accident.

Mi-17V5 which has a maximum speed of 250km/h would have reached the actual landing in the next couple of minutes if it were not for the fog. It is suspected that the Pilot of the chopper was flying at a low altitude due to poor visibility.