Desk, 09-Dec;Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today informed Parliament about the demise of Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other defence officials in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu.Addressing the Lok Sabha, Singh said the CDS was on a scheduled visit to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, to interact with the student Officers. “The Air Force Mi 17 V 5 helicopter took off from Sulur Air Base at 11:48 AM yesterday and was expected to land at Wellington by 12:15 PM. Air Traffic Control at Sulur Air Base lost contact with the helicopter at approximately 12:08 PM. 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. Rescue teams from the local administration in the vicinity reached the site and attempted to recover the survivors from the crash site,” he added.Singh said the dead include the spouse of the CDS, Mrs Madhulika Rawat, his Defence Adviser Brig Lakhbinder Singh Lidder, Staff Officer Lt Col Harjinder Singh and nine other Armed Forces personnel including the Air Force helicopter crew. Their names are Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, Junior Warrant Officer Rana Pratap Das, Junior Warrant Officer Arakkal Pradeep, Havildar Satpal Rai, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitendra Kumar, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar, Lance Naik B Sai Teja. On the sole survivor of the crash, Group Captain Varun Singh, the minister said he is on life support in the Military Hospital at Wellington and all efforts are being made to save his life.The mortal remains of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat and his wife, Madhulika Rawat are expected to arrive in Delhi on a military plane by Thursday evening.Over the sudden demise of India’s chief of defence staff, the Uttarakhand government has declared a three-day state mourning from December 9. Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has appealed to the party workers to not celebrate her birthday on Thursday and leaders from across the globe-. The United States, Russia, China and Pakistan expressed their condolences over the demise of Gen Rawat.The plane crashed 10 minutes before, which was on its way to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington to attend a programme. The Chief of Defence Staff had left the Palam airbase in an IAF Embraer aircraft at 8:47 am and landed at Sulur airbase at 11:34 am. He took off from Sulur in a Mi-17V5 chopper at around 1148 am for Wellington, PTI reported. The chopper crashed around 12.22 pm. Rawat had survived a helicopter crash six years ago, in 2015, when he was a Lt General.
