A helicopter who transported the Chief of the Indian State, General Bipin Rawat, has crashed into the southern state of Tamil Nadu, as the Air Force has reported.
"A MI-17V5 helicopter of the IAF, with the head of the defense staff, General Bipin Rawat on board, crashed today near Coonor, Tamil Nadu," said the Indian Air Force on Twitter.
"An investigation has been opened to identify the cause of the accident," he added, without specifying the reasons for the event or providing details about the state of his passengers.
The local news agency Ani indicated that 14 people traveled aboard the helicopter, including Rawat's wife and several military commanders.
The accident took place in a wooded area and, according to anonymous military sources cited by Ani, two people were transferred to a nearby hospital with serious burns.
NDTV television showed images of the accident area, where you can see the calcined remains of the aircraft and several people around the place of the accident trying to extinguish the fire.
Rawat took possession of his position in December 2016, in full wave of tension with the neighboring Pakistan after an action of Pakistani insurgents who ended up with the lives of 19 Indian soldiers, whom New Delhi responded with "surgical" attacks on the border and a diplomatic campaign against Islamabad.
Military aircraft accidents are a constant in this country.
In 2019, an Indian military pilot died and two others were injured after crashing his acrobatics plane with another apparatus during some exercises in the city of Bangalore, in southern India, while in October 2017 at least five members of the Indian Air Force died after an M-17 helicopter crashed in Arunachal Pradesh, in the northeast.
In December 2015, 10 BSF border body members died when it crashed into New Delhi.
Date Of Update: 08 December 2021, 09:16
