• CDS chief Bipin Rawat was alive and uttered his name before the team: Rescue Team

    National
    CDS chief Bipin Rawat was alive and uttered his name before the team: Rescue Team

    New Delhi: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat was alive and fully conscious when pulled from the chopper’s wreckage after the chopper crash in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. He also uttered his name in front of the rescue team.





    After the accident, the Senior chief fireman and rescue worker named NC Murali, a part of the team, said, “We saved 2 people alive, one of which was CDS Bipin Rawat. He told his name in a low voice. He died on the way to the hospital. We could not identify the other person who was rescued alive at that time. Later he was identified that he was Group Captain Varun Singh.”





    It was a complex rescue operation





    The report said that Bipin Rawat was severely burnt from its lower parts; he was taken to hospital in an ambulance wrapped in a bedsheet.





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    The rescue team said that there was no road to take the fire service engine to extinguish the wreckage of the burning chopper. For this, an attempt was made to extinguish the fire by bringing water from nearby houses and rivers.





    Moreover, the rescue team faced many problems as there were many trees near the accident site. The team found the dead bodies of 12 people while two people were pulled alive from the chopper’s wreckage. Both these people who survived were severely scorched. At the same time, the Air Force team was constantly guiding the rescue team about the broken parts of the helicopter.





    The accident site is about 100 km away from Kateri village. Kotari’s Potham Ponnam had heard the sound of the chopper passing before it crashed. He said that shortly after this, there was a loud explosion and it was learned that the helicopter had crashed. Residents of Kateri informed the district officials, after which the electricity in their area was disconnected as a precautionary measure.





    The accident happened when the CDS was on his way to deliver a speech at the Wellington Staff college at 2.30 pm to the young cadet officers.