The Indian Air Force Mi-17V5 helicopter that crashed near Coonoor on Wednesday took from the Sulur air base at 11.48am with 14 people on board including chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Raje Singh Rawat, and it was scheduled to land at the helipad at the Wellington golf course at 12.15pm where a three-star general was waiting to receive them, officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The air traffic control at Sulur, however, lost contact with the helicopter at 12.08pm, 20 minutes after it took off, defence minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament in a statement on one of India’s worst air mishaps that took the life of the country’s most senior military commander. The helicopter was seven minutes away from its destination.
