IAF Helicopter Crash: 13 of 14 dead, claims report
Guwahati: Reports have claimed that 13 of the 14 persons in the Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter crash have been confirmed to be dead while no official condition on Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat’s health status has yet been made.
Although Bipin Rawat was said to have been taken to the military hospital in Wellington his health condition is not yet known and no statements regarding this have been made.
As per locals, Two persons who were recovered from the crash site alive have received 80 percent burns but there is no identification as to who these were.
The crashed helicopter has been identified to be a Mi-17V5 helicopter. All the bodies recovered from the site have been taken to the Military Hospital in Wellington.
Rawat was commissioned into the 5th battalion of 11 Gorkha Rifles on 16 December 1978, the same unit as his father. He has much experience in high-altitude warfare and spent ten years conducting counter-insurgency operations.
He commanded a company in Uri, Jammu, and Kashmir as a Major. As a Colonel, he commanded his battalion, the 5th battalion 11 Gorkha Rifles, in the Eastern sector along the Line of Actual Control at Kibithu. Promoted to the rank of Brigadier, he commanded 5 Sector of Rashtriya Rifles in Sopore. He then commanded a multinational
Brigade in a Chapter VII mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) where he was twice awarded the Force Commander’s Commendation.
After promotion to Major General, Rawat took over as the General Officer Commanding 19th Infantry Division (Uri). As a Lieutenant General, he commanded III Corps, headquartered in Dimapur before taking over the Southern Army in Pune.
He also held staff assignments which included an instructional tenure at the Indian Military Academy (Dehradun), General Staff Officer Grade 2 at the Military Operations Directorate, logistics staff officer of a Re-organised Army Plains Infantry Division (RAPID) in central India, Colonel Military Secretary and Deputy Military Secretary in the Military Secretary’s Branch and Senior Instructor in the Junior Command Wing. He also served as the Major General Staff (MGGS) of the Eastern Command.
After being promoted to the Army Commander grade, Rawat assumed the post of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Southern Command on 1 January 2016. After a short stint, he assumed the post of Vice Chief of Army Staff on 1 September 2016.
On 17 December 2016, the Government of India appointed him as the 27th Chief of the Army Staff, superseding two more senior Lieutenant Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P. M. Hariz. He took office as Chief of Army Staff as the 27th COAS on 31 December 2016, after the retirement of General Dalbir Singh Suhag.
He is the third officer from the Gorkha Brigade to become the Chief of the Army Staff, after Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and General Dalbir Singh Suhag. On his visit to the United States in 2019, General Rawat was inducted into the United States Army Command and General Staff College International Hall of Fame.
He is also the honorary General of the Nepalese Army. It has been a tradition between the Indian and Nepali armies to confer the honorary rank of General to each other’s chiefs to signify their close and special military ties.