Nilgiris: A Mi 17-V5 series medium light helicopter carrying about 14 people including Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat crashed near a residential area at Katteri near Wellington Cantonment, in the Nilgiris district Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
A source told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity: “It is very difficult for anyone to survive such a crash, While the CDS is learnt to have been put on the ventilator, four bodies were found charred at the site of the crash. All others have been taken to the hospital.”
A total of 14 people including Defence Assistant, security commandos and IAF pilots were on board the ill-fated chopper which was heading to Wellington from Sulur Airbase in Coimbatore.
The chopper had flown from New Delhi to the Sulur airport on an official visit of the CDS who was accompanied by his wife and seven others besides two pilots, one engineer, one ground crew and an on-board caterer who usually accompanies such VIP passengers.
According to the passenger manifest, Rawat's wife Madhulika, Brig LS Lidder, Lt Col Harjinder Singh, NK Gursevak Singh, NK Jitendra Kumar, L/NK Vivek Kumar, L/Nk B Sai Teja and Havildar Satpal were among those in the Mi-series chopper that crashed between at Katteri near Wellington, Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu.
The local military officers have reached the location and were told that locals have taken two bodies with 80 per cent burns to a local hospital. Few bodies can be seen downhill in the area of the accident. Four bodies have been recovered, and three injured persons were rescued from IAF helicopter crash site in TN.
The mishap happened at Nanjappanchathiram area amid heavy mist and early visuals showed the helicopter in flames.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the accident.
Witness account from crash site
Krishna Kumar, an eyewitness was in his busy laying water pipes when the MI 17 VF met with an accident in his vilage in Tamil Nadu. He said he heard a huge blast and saw a helicopter hitting a tree. It swirled around, hit a another big tree before it burst into flames. He saw a smoke cloud out of the debris.
"I saw a few passengers on fire falling down from the chopper before it crashed. One person crawled out of the crashed chopper," Krishna Kumar.
I got scared, he said and called out Kumar (another local) who rang Police and Fire Service for further help. They rescued the injured and moved them to hospital, he said.
Ground report from crash site
ETV Bharat's Nateshkumar, reporting from Nanjappa Chathiram where the chopper crashed, says that as many as 11 bodies have been recovered from the crash site.
He adds that the Army officials, District Administration, Police, and Fire and Rescue Personnel have launched a joint-search operation. Drones are deployed in the hills to locate any survivors.
