Coonoor/New Delhi, Dec 9: The black box of the military helicopter that crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu killing Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and 12 others was retrieved on Thursday, a critical piece of evidence in the investigation by a tri-services inquiry announced by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Parliament.
As the minister said in a statement that the inquiry would be headed by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh and the lone survivor was on life support, in Wellington, about six kilometres from the crash site, bugles sounded the last post in honour of those who had been killed.
The mortal remains of the victims in caskets wrapped in the Indian tricolour were taken to the Madras Regimental Centre at Wellington in decorated army trucks.
Senior Army officials, Tamil Nadu ministers and Army veterans laid wreaths and paid floral tributes. The remains were later taken to Coimbatore by road, about 70 km away, from where they would be flown to New Delhi in a special IAF aircraft.
Stunned by the tragedy that had struck them, families of the victims prepared for funerals as they waited for the bodies to reach their homes.
Two boxes, including the flight data recorder, or the black box, were found after authorities expanded the search from 300 metres to one kilometre in the hilly, wooded area. They are likely to be taken to Delhi or Bengaluru to ascertain the cause of the crash, officials said.
The black box is expected to provide crucial data on the chain of events leading to the crash of the Mi-17VH helicopter that went up in flames in apparently foggy conditions on Wednesday afternoon, killing 63-year-old Rawat who was on his way to the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington to address faculty and student officers, his wife Madhulika and 11 others.
There was only one survivor, IAF’s Group Captain Varun Singh, who is an instructor at the prestigious DSSC and received Gen Rawat at the Sulur airbase from where the entourage was heading towards Wellington in the Russian-made chopper.
The officer, who suffered severe burn injuries, was moved from a hospital in Wellington in a vehicle ambulance to Sulur and from there to the command hospital Bengaluru for better treatment, officials said. All efforts are being made to save Group Captain Singh, the Defence minister said in his statement.
“A tri-services inquiry headed by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh has been ordered by the Indian Air Force. A team of investigators had reached Wellington yesterday (Wednesday) itself and started their work,” Singh said in his statement read out in both houses.
He said the last rites of Gen Rawat will be performed with full military honours. The last rites of the other military personnel who died in the crash will also be conducted with appropriate military honours, he added.(PTI)
