An Indian Army helicopter crashed near Tamil Nadu's Coonoor on Wednesday. Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat was among others in the crashed helicopter. While the exact number of people onboard the chopper wasn't revealed by IAF, a passenger manifest has been obtained by IBTimes.
As per the crew and passenger manifest of the IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter, which was heading to Sulur, where CDS Rawat was to deliver a lecture at Wellington Staff College. Here's the list of passengers and crew onboard the crashed helicopter.
- CDS Gen Bipin Rawat
- Mrs Madhulika Rawat
- Brig LS Lidder (DA to CDS)
- Lt Col Harjinder Singh (SO to CDS)
- NK Gursewak Singh (PSO)
- NK Jitendra Kumar (PSO)
- L/NK Vivek Kumar (PSO)
- B Sai Teja (PSO)
- Hav Satpal (PSO)
Not all of the passengers listed in the manifest were onboard, according to sources. It's worth pointing out that the passenger manifest is for Delhi to Sulur route. The crash happened after the chopper took off from the Sulur airbase and was proceeding to Wellington. The passenger manifest for that route hasn't been released, however it is reported there were 14 passengers onboard, 11 of which are feared dead.
