CDS Bipin Rawat among 13 dead in chopper crash in Tamil Nadu

Rawat and his entourage had flown in the morning in an Embraer Legacy jet from Delhi to Sulur Air Force Base, near Coimbatore

The country’s most senior serving soldier, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, was killed in a helicopter crash in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, when he was flying to give a lecture at the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington.

With him in an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17V-5 helicopter were his wife, Madhulika Rawat, and 11 other armed forces personnel. The only survivor was the pilot, Group Captain Varun Singh, who is battling for his life in Military Hospital Wellington.

Paying tributes to General Rawat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “an outstanding soldier” and “a true patriot” who greatly contributed to modernising India’s armed forces and security apparatus. “As India’s first CDS, General Rawat worked on…read more