Bengaluru, Dec. 9: The lone survivor of the chopper crash in which Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others were killed, Group Captain Varun Singh, is critical and has been airlifted to the city from Sulur airbase in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
An ambulance took Group Captain Singh from a military hospital in Wellington to the Sulur Air Base and from there he was airlifted to Bengaluru to treat him at the Command Hospital in Bengaluru.
Group Captain Singh was taken from the crash site to the military hospital in Wellington with severe burn injuries.
Group Captain Singh’s parents Col K. P. Singh and Uma Singh were in Mumbai at the home of their younger son Tanuj, a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, when they received news of the crash.
Meanwhile in the parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that Group Captain Singh is on life support and “all efforts are being made to save him.”
The critically injured Air Force officer has won the Shaurya Chakra in August for his courage in handling his aircraft after it was hit by a snag during a sortie last year. He managed to land his Tejas fighter safely.
On Wednesday, Group Captain Singh had gone to Sulur to receive General Rawat and escort him to the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. General Rawat was to address the faculty and students at the institute, where Group Captain Singh is Directing Staff.
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 defence personnel were killed in the crash on Wednesday afternoon.
The ill-fated helicopter crashed in between two mountains of Nilgiri hills range in Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
The Russian-made Mi-17V5 military helicopter had just taken off from an army base in Sulur, and was heading for Wellington town, less than 100km (62 miles) away.
On board with General Rawat and his wife were seven other military passengers and five crew members, including the pilot.
Most of the bodies recovered from the crash site were charred beyond recognition. The Air Force has ordered an inquiry into the crash.
Investigators have collected crucial evidence like crash data recorders, flight data recorder etc from the crash site.
