Tri-service probe into chopper crash, Group Captain on life support: Govt

The Indian Air Force has ordered a tri-service inquiry into the crash that killed General Bipin Rawat.

Group Captain Varun Singh is on life support and "all efforts" are being being made to save him, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on Thursday, referring to the Air Force officer who survived in the chopper crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat.

The Indian Air Force has ordered a tri-service inquiry into the crash. The inquiry team led by led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh reached Wellington yesterday, Singh said in Lok Sabha.

The Russian-made Mi-17 V5 helicopter carrying Rawat, 63, crashed around noon Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said in a statement on Twitter without providing details on the accident. Rawat, his wife, and 11 others on the chopper died. Group Captain Singh was taken to a hospital.

Rawat was travelling from an Indian Air Force base in Sulur to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington to deliver a lecture. Hill station Coonoor is along the flight path. Rawat was appointed as India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in late 2019.

Rawat's funeral will be performed with full military honours, Singh said. The last rites of the other military personnel who died in the crash will also be conducted with appropriate military honours.

Lok Sabha paid tributes to the dead by observing a moment of silence. 

(With inputs from agencies.)