IAF chopper crash: Blackbox of General Bipin Rawat's crashed chopper recovered

A day following CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others lost their lives after an IAF chopper crashed near the Katteri-Nanchappanchathram area in Coonoor, officials embarked on a search operation for the black box of the crashed chopper, on Thursday.

According to reports, after the search area was widened from 300 metres to one kilometre from the accident spot, the black box was recovered. It is still not clear how the chopper crashed minutes before it was scheduled to land in Wellington.

The black box would provide significant details on the sequence of events of exactly what went wrong before the chopper crashed and went up in flames. The black box can reveal specifics about the flight's final moment and the last-minute conversation at the cockpit.

Earlier, IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari visited the crash site along with state DGP C Sylendra Babu.

Dead bodies of those who lost their lives in the chopper crash have been brought to Madras Regimental Centre from Military Hospital. The remains of CDS Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat are likely to reach Delhi by Thursday.

A video clip possibly recorded just before the chopper crashed has gone viral on the internet. News agency ANI shared the video, which has been recorded by the locals in the area. The reliability of the clip has not been verified.

India’s first CDS Bipin Rawat was on a visit to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington to address the staff and student officers of the Staff Course when his chopper crashed.

General Bipin Rawat was installed as India's first ever Chief of Defense Staff on 31st December, 2019. Earlier, he served as Chief of the Army Staff from January 2017 to December 2019. He was commissioned into the Indian Army in December 1978. A veteran of counterinsurgency warfare, CDS Rawat served in the most strenuous landscapes which includes Northern and Eastern commands.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu's forensic dept team reaches chopper crash site

Also Read: Chopper crash: Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari reaches crash site near Tamil Nadu's Coonoor