By Olayemi Esan
A military helicopter carrying 14 passengers, including Indian defence chief General Bipin Rawat and his wife, crashed in southern India on Wednesday. The indian Air Force confirmed the General was among the 13 confirmed dead.
The group was travelling in an Mi-17V5 helicopter from an Air Force base in Sulur to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to deliver a lecture.
India has dozens of the Russian military chopper that are wadety used by the military as well as top government ministers visiting defence locations.
Rawat, 63, was appointed as India's first Chief of Defence Staff by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in late 2019. The position was set up with the aim of integrating India's three military services - the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
Several of the bodies were badly burnt, two government sources said. "Some bodies were so charred that they could not be immediately identified,” one of the sources said.
